Highway crews have finished work to northbound Interstate 5 between Burlington and Lake Samish for the season, and they’ll return next year to finish.

The state Department of Transportation rebuilt the northbound lanes this year. Crews will return next year to repave the southbound ramps, repair two bridge decks and finish work on guardrails, signs and lane stripes, according to the DOT.

Click here to see more on the project.

Crews will do crack-sealing work on the following Bellingham streets next week (weather permitting):

• Iowa Street, from Lincoln to Puget streets
• J Street, from Bancroft to Dupont streets
• H Street, from Irving to Girard streets
• Williams Way, from West Connecticut to West Illinois streets
• West Connecticut Street, from Lynn to Victor streets.

Lanes will be reduced in the work zones, but flaggers will be on site to direct traffic through.

Ferndale is considering creating a transportation benefit district that would encompass city limits.

The City Council last night voted 6-0 to direct staff to draft an ordinance that would create the citywide district. The district could then impose a $20 per vehicle car tab fee, or voters could approve a sales tax increase to fund the district, which would spend money on transportation.

In Bellingham, the city created a TBD, and voters approved a two-tenths of 1 percent sales tax increase to fund the district. The money is going to restore Sunday bus service, to build pedestrian and bicycle improvements and to boost spending for annual street repaving.

In Ferndale, a public hearing on whether to create the district is set for Nov. 21.

Following is the discussion the City Council’s Public Works & Utilities Committee had on Nov. 2 on the topic:

Transportation Benefit District ($20 Car Tabs) Read the rest of this entry »

Ferndale will close a stretch of Washington Street for a week, while crews replace some old sewer lines, according to Ferndale Public Works.

The weeklong closure begins Monday, Nov. 7, between Second Avenue and Portal Way. Local access will still be allowed on Portal between Willard Street and Washington Street, as well as Second south of Washington. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some of the street closures you can expect on Bellingham streets next week:

Sterling Avenue

Traffic along Sterling Avenue next week will be reduced to one lane while crews do some digging to install a new manhole, according to Bellingham Public Works.

Byron, Consolidation avenues

Traffic will be reduced to one lane – with possible 20-minute delays – along Byron and Consolidation avenues near Interstate 5. Crews are going to begin work on sewer replacements. The sewer replacements are trenchless (they’ll put slips inside of existing sewer lines and burst the old pipes).

Crack sealing

Traffic will be reduced to one lane on the following streets while crews do crack sealing:

• Iowa Street, from Lincoln to Woburn streets
• Irving Street, from Broadway to Cornwall Street
• Sterling Drive, from Kirkview to Pana Vista streets)

Malloy Avenue will be reduced to one lane while crews install nearly a mile of sidewalk, according to the city of Ferndale.

The crews will be working between the roundabout near Ferndale High School and Oxford Court, which is north of Thornton Road.

The city is asking drivers to avoid the street, if possible.

Larry Brown Construction, Inc. will build the new sidewalk, as well as a new sidewalk on Second Avenue between the Boys and Girls Club and the ConocoPhillips Sports Complex. The Second Avenue project is almost done.

Crews today finished final paving and opened the new roundabout at Mount Baker Highway and East Smith Road, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Boss Construction was the contractor working on the project, which also involved building a roundabout at Mount Baker Highway and Lawrence Road, in Nugents Corner.

“This used to be a really tough intersection to make a left turn,” Project Engineer Chris Damitio stated in a press release. “Cars would back up on Smith Road, and there were quite a few crashes at the intersection.”

There were 21 crashes at theintersection between 2002 and 2006.

“The roundabout is going to totally change things here,” Damitio stated in the release. “It’s going to keep traffic moving, and it’s going to make it a whole lot easier to turn on and off the highway safely.”

Crews still have some work to do. Over the next few weeks, they’ll occasionally close lanes to landscape the roundabout, finish paving nearby driveways, complete final lane striping and clean up. Delays should be minimal, according to the DOT.

Click here to see more on the project.

Highway crews have closed vehicle access to Heather Meadows, after new snow fell on the area, according to the state Department of Transportation.

The DOT this summer didn’t open the road above the ski area all the way up to Artist Point because there was just too much snow too late in the year. It did open the road as far as Heather Meadows.

They closed the road above the ski lodge yesterday.

I wanted to follow-up on a Bellingham City Council vote on Monday night: The council voted 7-0 to approve a request by the state Department of Transportation for up to 25 nights of construction work on Interstate 5 in city limits.

The DOT wants to work at night on a project to improve the traveler information system by installing new traffic cameras, data stations and fiber optic lines.

They plan to start work in June 2012 and end in late October 2012.

Click here to see my previous post on this.

Whatcom Transportation Authority buses will begin serving the new East Whatcom Regional Resource Center starting Monday, Nov. 7.

The Route 72X will stop at the new center, which is located in Columbia Valley, on inbound trips to Bellingham.

Here is the schedule:

Weekdays
6:35 AM
8:02 AM
12:02 PM
2:44 PM
5:31 PM
6:42 PM

Saturdays
8:36 AM
1:04 PM
6:44 PM