Here’s why construction crews have closed lanes on State Street in Bellingham
Construction crews are running an 8-inch gas main under North State Street near Ellis Street, getting ready for a planned bridge replacement this spring and summer.
During the work, the center turn lane of North State Street is closed, and some other lanes closings have been required.
Engineer Craig Mueller of the city’s Public Works Engineering Department said the State Street bridge over Whatcom Creek will be replaced in May 2020 and take about six months, if all goes according to plan.
Lack of a federal permit to work in a salmon stream held up the project last summer.
That permit remains outstanding, but Mueller said he expects it will be issued in time.
“We thought that we had gotten everything in ahead of the (December 2018) government shutdown, but that apparently wasn’t the case,” Mueller said in an interview.
“We’re still optimistic that we’ll be able to make this year’s ‘fish window,’” he said. “Virtually everything else is done.”
Plans call for replacement of an 80-year-old timber bridge spanning the creek on North State Street, between Ellis and York streets — one of two short bridges that connect Bellingham’s northern neighborhoods with the city center via State and Ellis streets.
Cost is expected to be about $2.5 million, Mueller said.
Meanwhile, a contractor for Cascade Natural Gas is boring a new section of 8-inch natural gas main in under Whatcom Creek, said Amy Cloud, spokeswoman for the city’s Public Works Department.
Cloud said current gas main is attached to the bridge and must be relocated and remain in service.
Crews are boring some 950 feet under the creek from Franklin Street to East Champion Street, Cloud said in an email.
That gas main will be about 80 feet deep when it passes under the creek, she said.
This story was originally published December 26, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
