Max J. Kuney Co., of Spokane, is the apparent low bidder on a $42 million specialty interchange project on busy Interstate 405 in Kirkland, Wash., and with two other recent successful bids is now in line to do $110 million in major transportation projects.


Kuney also has been awarded a $33 million contract to build two bridges in Yakima, Wash., and recently won a $34.8 million project to do reconstruction and bridge work on U.S. 95 in Idaho south of Coeur d+Alene.


The Yakima and Kirkland projects are scheduled to start June 1, and the Coeur dAlene project began three weeks ago.


The $42 million Kirkland project would be the largest contract Kuney has ever signed, says Steve Busch, Kuneys chief estimator, who has been in the business 30 years. This is work on a major interchange.


That project, which is designed to make a Sound Transit park-and-ride site more accessible to I-405, will include construction of two bridges to carry N.E. 128th Street over the freeway, building of onramps and offramps from 128th to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) freeway lanes, and other work.


That other work includes widening a one mile stretch of I-405, widening two bridges that carry N.E. 132nd Street to the north over the freeway, and widening a ramp bridge to the south at 124th.


Although Kuneys employees and subcontractors will be working around the clock, no lanes on I-405 lane will be closed during the daytime, says Busch. This is one of the most complicated traffic control staging projects Ive ever bid, he says.


Much of the work will take place in the median between the northbound and southbound lanes of busy I-405, says Busch, with Kuney scheduled not only to build the two bridges, but to construct on- and offramps connecting the HOV lanes in the middle of the freeway to 128th. Those ramps will give commuter buses better connections between the nearby park-and-ride lot and I-405 in both directions.


That project is scheduled to last 18 months and is to be funded by Sound Transit, the regional network of express buses, commuter rail, light rail, and transit facilities that serves King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. The Washington state Department of Transportation is responsible for awarding the bid and, in cooperation with the city of Kirkland and Sound Transit, for organizing the project.


In Yakima, Kuney is to replace two bridges on state Route 24, one of which goes over Interstate 82 and the other, about one mile to the east, that spans the Yakima River.


In each instance, Kuney will construct the new bridge adjacent to the old one before tearing down the old bridge, thus keeping state Route 24 open to traffic, says Tobin Smith, project engineer.


The bridge to be built over I-82 will be 100 feet wide and will span 158 feet, says Smith. What is now two lanes in either direction will be expanded to three lanes in each direction, says Smith.


The state Route 24 bridge over the Yakima River is narrow, with one lane in each direction, says Smith. The new bridge will be four lanes wide with a 10-foot bicycle lane. It will have a length of 1,565 feet, he says.


The Yakima bridge construction project will take about 18 months to complete, says Smith.


The work that Kuney is doing on the four-mile stretch of U.S. 95 south of Coeur dAlene will continue until 2007. Because of environmental issues, the project basically will be shut down from October until April, Busch says.


Busch estimates that about 80 Kuney workers will be employed on the three major highway projects, and an equal number of subcontractor employees.