More than a year of favorable bids has saved the state millions on highway jobs, allowing it to pull 21 other highway and ferry projects off the scrap heap, the state Department of Transportation said Monday. There’s about $112 million more available than expected.
That’s good news, but it doesn’t make up for a few years ago when the state had to cut the Belfair Bypass and 30 other projects because the recession took a $4 billion bite out of gas tax revenues. Of the 21 projects that have been added back, none are in the Olympic Region.
These are mostly smaller jobs. The Belfair Bypass itself would cost about $56 million, or about half of the total available. There are four ferry projects on the list totalling $4.9 million — $1.6 million for Anacortes terminal preservation, $900,000 for Anacortes overhead loading, $2 million for a Mukilteo transfer span and $400,000 for Edmonds terminal preservation.
Fourteen of the 21 projects are on the other side of the mountains.
DOT plans to award the contracts this fall and start construction in the spring, creating or supporting about 580 jobs.
You can check out the whole list here.
