April 11, 2011

UW wants GC/CM for land bridge

GGN/LMN image courtesy of the University of Washington [enlarge]

The University of Washington will hire a general contractor/construction manager to build a land bridge between Montlake Triangle and Rainier Vista on the UW campus.

The overall budget is $20.8 million and includes $11.3 million for construction.

At 1 p.m. tomorrow there will be a pre-bid meeting in Room 107 of the Fisheries Science Building near the intersection of Northeast Pacific and Boat streets. Bids are due April 26, according to a notice in the April 6 DJC.

The site is already a regional crossroads and will become even busier when the Husky Stadium light rail station opens in 2016. Sound Transit estimates 25,000 people a day will board trains at the station by 2030.

The land bridge project will provide access between the UW campus and the station.

Northeast Pacific Place will be lowered and the land bridge will cross above it to separate pedestrian and bicycle traffic from motor vehicles. The portion of Rainier Vista between Stevens Way and the land bridge will be filled and landscaped.

The GC/CM also will build a ramp for a new pedestrian bridge over Montlake Boulevard Northeast to access the light rail station.

UW project manager Andy Casillas said structural engineering companies on the UW's roster will be interviewed this week for the land bridge project. The landscape architecture firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol already is working on the project.

The land bridge project will be tricky. The GC/CM will be asked to keep Metro trolley buses running through the area and the parking garage under the Montlake Triangle must stay open during construction.

The work will be coordinated with construction of the Husky Stadium station, which is also a GC/CM project. LMN Architects and KPFF Consulting Engineers are designing the station, and Hoffman Construction is the GC/CM. Swift Company is the landscape architect.