As usual, Auburn’s Public Works Department has plenty of capital projects on its hands in various stages of development, all the way from the early design phase to construction.
Specifically, as Jeff Bender and Seth Wickstrom of engineering services informed a study session of the Auburn City Council on July 22, the department is now managing 47 active capital projects — 32 of them still in design, worth about $101 million, and 15 under construction, with an approximate total value of $32 million. Altogether, that sums to about $133 million worth of projects.
Certainly one of the most ambitious is the $5.2 million Regional Growth Center Access project, slated to begin this month in downtown Auburn, with portions taking place on 3rd Street and on a corner on Auburn Way North.
Wickstrom said there are three main purposes to this project: to make it easier for pedestrians and vehicles to access the downtown and the transit center; to replace street and utility infrastructure that is at or near the end of its service life; and to upgrade street lights, traffic signals and sidewalks to meet Auburn’s downtown standards.
Within the project area, Wickstrom noted, are three closely-spaced traffic signals: one at 3rd Street and Auburn Avenue, the second at 4th Street and Auburn Avenue, and the third at Auburn Way North and 4th Street.
The aim of the project, Wickstrom said, is to address the following deficiencies:
• The lack of a north-south-going crosswalk at 3rd Street Northeast;
• Inefficient traffic signal operations at Auburn Avenue;
• Sidewalks and curbs that fail to meet current standards, including the fact that most of the sidewalks are narrower then the 10-foot-wide downtown standard;
• Deteriorating pavement and utilities;
• Curb radiuses that are too small in some areas, too wide in others;
• Some of the water mains, and all of the sewer mains and storm drainage lines are deteriorating and need to be replaced.
• That northbound traffic on Auburn Avenue is not allowed to make a left turn onto 3rd Street.
• Construction is slated to begin this month and continue through summer 2025.
Auburn will pay for it with a $2.1 million Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) grant, a $1.6 million grant from Sound Transit, and from the city’s own coffers — $490,000 from its arterial street fund, $286,000 from its street preservation fund, $166,000 from its water fund, $139,000 from its sewer fund, and $377,000 from its storm drainage fund for a total cost of $5,195,000.
Here are updates on other projects, according to Bender.
• R Street Southeast Preservation Project. At the moment the contractor is finishing some of the utility work that must be completed before the roadway can be completely resurfaced. New curbs and gutters have already been installed along the west side of the road, and the the contractor is putting in curb ramps and other foundations connected to a separate project.
• The A Street Loop project. The facade on the wall is completed and the contractor has finished up the caps on walls. This project, however, is now halted as the contractor is waiting for third-party utilities to relocate their utility poles to points behind the new sidewalk, so the contractor can finished the rest of the concrete improvements.
• Local streets preservation update. The contractor has made a lot of headway, having substantially completed four of the six preservation sites. Although minor work remains to be done to finish everything up, they are substantially complete. At the moment the contractor is working on the alley south of 6th Street Northeast (near the Starting Gate Restaurant). The scope of work calls for the paving of a gravel alleyway.
• Final update on the Coal Creek Springs Transmission Main. The contractor has put the bridge in place over the White River and set it on its foundations. Since that achievement, the contractor has completed the abutment walls and connected the utilities. “In the near future we should be making connections to the trails system,” Bender said. “We’ll be doing the final landscaping in October, at which time we should have everything opened up to the public.”
