Rosalia Whitman Avenue reconstruction project open for bids, slated for summer

--Trevor Skelton

This map shows the detour route during the Whitman Avenue reconstruction slated this summer. The project will close Whitman Avenue between Eighth and the south city limits. Road detours are indicated by the dashed lines and numbers one and two, with the one indicating the detour for truck traffic and two indicating the detour for through traffic.

Rosalia's long-awaited Whitman Avenue reconstruction project has gone out to bid. The town last year went to bid for the project, but necessary revisions delayed the project.

“It's even more exciting now,” said Mayor Nanette Konishi.

The Whitman Avenue reconstruction project, paid for largely by a Transportation Improvement Board grant, will remove the existing concrete panels first constructed there in 1931.

“We'll be taking out the existing asphalt and removing the old highway concrete panels,” said Trevor Skelton, project engineer with J-U-B Engineers in Spokane. “We'll be bringing it back up to the same level to preserve the height.”

Mayor Konishi said the concrete panels will be replaced with a new base rock and five-inch thick asphalt pavement surface.

The project will take place on Whitman Avenue between Eighth Street and the south city limits. During construction, to start in July, that portion of the road will be closed, and a car detour will be in place up First Street and Josephine. A truck detour will be in place down Whitman Avenue and up Seventh and Eighth streets, said Konishi.

“The south end will be closed, so people will have to come in from the north side,” she said.

Skelton said the project is slated for 35 working days, and it is booked to begin July 5 to allow for “peak, dry heat” with the opening up of the asphalt layers.

“This is ground that hasn't been open in decades and decades,” he said, noting it has to hit certain compaction levels, and moisture does not help that. The 35 working days are slated so the project does not interfere with the start of the new school year.

“It will be a tight schedule,” he said.

The project includes street widening in some places, as well as curb and gutter for select stretches. Konishi said it will also include some landscaping and stormwater improvements.

Tree removal was part of the original project bid last year, and Konishi said with the T.I.B. recommending changes last year, she wanted to be able to have the project designed to keep the trees.

“There were trees right along the sidewalks that were intended to come out,” she said. “We pushed hard to save those trees if possible, and we did. It was worth the wait.”

The bids are due to the Town of Rosalia by Thursday, March 16, before 10 a.m. Questions regarding the bid can be directed to Skelton at J-U-B Engineers.

509-458-3727