WSDOT explains summer projects in Chelan Valley at open houses in Chelan, Manson

CHELAN - Get ready for traffic delays and the soothing sounds of heavy construction equipment ringing across the Chelan Valley this summer as the Washington State Department of Transportation has three projects on tap. 

WSDOT held two open houses on March 28 and 29 last week in Chelan and Manson to explain all three. 

• No See Um 

“The contract has been awarded and I expect it to get executed this week,” Project Engineer Kevin Waligorski stated at the Chelan City Council meeting after the Chelan open house on the 28th. “So it should start within three weeks, and the contractor is interested in getting this project going early and getting as much work done as possible before Memorial Day.” 

Waligorski explained that the project will be done in three phases and is hopeful the project will be completed by Thanksgiving. 

“The first stage is to update the water and sewer from Don Morse Park to the project and to build the shoofly detour for cars to use around the project,” Waligorski said. “That work we’ll have single lane control so there will be some delays, but once we get to phase two, we will get traffic moving on the detour road.” 

The side streets, Golf Course Road and No See Um, will also be used in phases as Golf Course Road will be closed during the first stage and then No See Um will be closed in the next two phases until the project is complete. 

• Paving Project along Highway 150 

In addition to the No See-Um Roundabout, WSDOT will be paving from the Chelan Safeway out to Manson, while skipping the No See-Um section. 

“We have a little piece in town and then we’ll jump across and continue out to Manson,” Waligorski said. “That project is awarded and executed, Central Washington Paving is our contractor and they are planning to start on April 10.” 

Waligorski said the first two to three weeks the contractor will be doing some preliminary work to lower utilities and anything metal in the roadway that could get hit by the grinder. 

“So we’ll grinding the top two inches off the road and then come in with the paving crew,” Waligorski explained. “The first couple of weeks will be during the day, but once we get grinding and paving, that will all be at night from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. There is a lot less traffic at that time, but the downside is for folks that live around that road, there will be six to 12 nights where you will have construction equipment going by your house at all hours of the night.” 

If they did the job during the day, lane closures would be exorbitant. 

Waligorski was optimistic that the project will be completed by Memorial Day, with some re-striping and adjusting the metal after May. 

• Highway 971 rock slope failure

On Thursday, March 9 there was a rock slide along Lake Chelan on Highway 971. 

“Since then our crew has removed the rock and we are now hiring a contractor to scale some of the loose rocks off the slope and then to bolt nails into the rocks to hold them,’ Waligorski said. 

These nails will be a 10 to 40 foot piece of rebar that the contractor will grout the end in place so it has an anchor on the backside of the cracks. 

Waligorski stated WSDOT is trying to get that work done by Memorial Day as well. 

Zach Johnson can be reached at lcmeditor@gmail.com or (509) 682-2213