May 23, 2022

Scarsella is low bidder for $335M widening job over Snoqualmie Pass

WSDOT image [enlarge]

The total project site is 6.26 miles long, but the majority of the work involves 5.5 miles of reconstruction.

Washington State Department of Transportation last week opened bids for a $335 million project that will add lanes to about 5.5 miles of Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass. Scarsella Brothers was the apparent low bidder, at $285.5 million, of five firms seeking the job.

Work will take place between the Cabin Creek and West Easton interchanges. It will create a six-lane freeway in a section of I-90 that currently has four lanes. It also will build 12 new bridges, including two wildlife overpasses and two wildlife underpasses. Related work will include new culverts, hydraulic connectivity zones at five locations, wildlife exclusion fencing, structural walls, concrete barrier, guardrail, illumination and an intelligent transportation system.

Hydraulic connectivity zones allow water to flow from the north side of the freeway to the south. This will be done by either porous embankment construction using large quarry spall sections or buried precast structures, according to Scarsella.

The engineer's estimate for the base bid was $239.03 million. With Alternative 2, it was $249.35 million. Scarsella's base bid was $276.97 million, and its bid with A2 was $285.46 million.

Here are the other bidders (including A2): Skanska USA Civil West California District, $311.9 million; Graham Contracting, $325 million; Walsh Construction Co. II (The Walsh Group), $330.31 million; and Guy F. Atkinson Construction, $331.65 million.

Scarsella says the most challenging part of this project will be maintaining traffic while drilling and shooting rock hillsides, and constructing large embankment fills/retaining walls on the south side of the freeway to construct the new eastbound lanes.

Construction is expected to start in July and will take 700 working days to complete, according to WSDOT. But since there is a short construction season in the mountains due to many months of inclement weather, project completion is not expected until fall of 2028.

WSDOT's webpage says the project has $335 million in funding. It is the third phase of a 15-mile corridor improvement project to improve safety and reliability and reduce congestion along I-90 from Hyak to the Easton vicinity.

Drivers should expect one-hour closures of the freeway weekdays in August and September, as rock blasting is scheduled for these times.