Spokane Valley firm lands contract for Rosalia Whitman Avenue project

Rosalia's Whitman Avenue reconstruction project is set to get underway this summer. Last week, the town awarded a contract to Sandry Construction Company out of Spokane Valley to complete the project.

This will be the first time the town has worked with Sandry, but the project engineers, J-U-B Engineers, have worked with the company.

Trevor Skelton, project engineer with J-U-B, said they previously worked with Sandry for a sewage project. Jenna McDonald, Rosalia town clerk/treasurer, said the bid amount from Sandry was $632,550.

Four bids were received, Skelton said, and Sandry was the low bidder.

The project is set to take place on Whitman Avenue between Eighth Street and the south city limits. It includes removing existing concrete panels from the road which were first constructed in 1931, as well as replacing those panels with a new base rock and five-inch thick asphalt pavement surface. Noting that the Sandry award was just a bid, McDonald said some components could be altered or added to the project, depending on how the road looks.

“We have no idea what we're going to find when we pull up the concrete,” she said.

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

Tree removal was part of the original package the town was proposing last year for the project, but some items needed to be revised, which delayed the project, and tree removal was not included in the second attempt.

The project, which will start in July and is expected to conclude 35 working days later, is being funded largely by a Transportation Improvement Board grant.

“That's the plan,” said Skelton. “We are wanting to get it started early enough so we're not running into harvest and the school year, but also late enough to dry out the soil that is underneath before we start.”