Acme Concrete Paving Inc., of Spokane, is the apparent low bidder for the next phase of work on Spokanes long-awaited north-south freeway, bidding to put down a rock base on and pave a four-mile stretch of whats formally called the North Spokane Corridor, for $19.5 million.


That work, on the northbound lanes of the freeway, will stretch from where its route crosses over Freya Street, near Wilding Avenue, north to Farwell Road, says Larry Larson, a project engineer for the Washington state Department of Transportation.


Plans are to open one lane of traffic in each direction on that stretch in 2009, he says.


The contractor who gets the job will have the option of either beginning the project this year and completing it next year, or doing all of the work in 2008, Larson says.


This project is doable in one season, says Larson. The contractor may choose to do it all in one construction season and avoid the cost of mobilizing his efforts twice.


Acmes bid is slightly above DOT estimates for the work. Thats in contrast to a related DOT contract recently awarded to Steelman-Duff Inc., of Clarkston, Wash., which bid $10.6 million, $4 million below DOT estimates, to grade two miles of the freeway route and to build two bridges, Larson says.


The difference between the two contracts is that this one is more commodity-based, he says. This project has a set amount of concrete and paving, and prices for those commodities are set by outside forces. He says the grading portion of the Steelman-Duff bid, because of efficiencies expected to be achieved by that contractors workers, allowed that company to bid lower than DOT estimates.


Tom Brasch, a DOT assistant project engineer, says the northern 1.2 miles of the project Acme is seeking, between Parksmith Drive and Farwell, will require final leveling and realigning prior to the rock work and paving. Parts of another section of the freeways route just south of there, between Parksmith and Fairview, also will need similar preparatory work before the rock base and pavement can be laid down, he says. Yet, that leg of the project cant be completed this year because of the planned construction of an above-ground $30 million railroad tunnel near Market Street, says Brasch.


He says mountains of dirt from an earlier north-south freeway grading job have been built near the railroad tracks there to carry the freeway over the tracks, which will remain in their alignment. Although the railroad tracks wont move, the effect will be a 1,300-foot-long tunnel built along the railroad line, which the freeway will cross, Brasch says.


DOTs eventual goal for the roughly 20-year project is to complete a freeway for 10.2 miles between Interstate 90, near its Thor-Freya exit, and U.S. 395, near Wandermere Golf Course. The estimated cost of that project, including a 3.5-mile access collector-distribution system along I-90, is $3.3 billion, says Larson.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.