Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Representatives from five contractor firms gathered in county commissioners’ chambers Monday for the opening of bids for the 2017 Road Safety Project.
The project went to the low bid from Frank Gurney, Inc., of Spokane Valley at $680,015. Bids ranged up to $1,311,311 from Pavement Service Control of Kennewick.
The work is to be paid for with $750,000 from the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.
County Public Works department staff will now review Gurney’s bid documents for approval by county commissioners Dec. 19.
The project list includes guardrails on a stretch of Endicott-St. John Road and signs on 30 other county roads. Signs will include chevrons – square yellow signs with black pointers – and other curve warnings.
Work is planned for early next year.
To decide on the list, Mark Storey, Public Works director, and staff reviewed a Lidar study – a type of remote sensing – which last year photographed all 430 miles of paved roads in Whitman County, creating “positional data” used to decipher what contributes to accidents.
Last January, Public Works wrote out a plan targeting roads from Lamont to near the Port of Lewiston at Wilma.
Because of the federal money, county crews cannot be used for the work. The change in the law was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package, which aimed, in part, to create jobs from federal investment.
Erlandson, Inc ,. of East Wenatchee performed the Lidar study – also paid for by the county’s $750,000 grant – using a pilot car trailed by a county vehicle.
Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) projects require submission of engineering plans to the Federal Highway Department for approval, after which funds are released.
One mile of guardrail costs $100,000. A single road sign costs $50-$100.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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