Final section of Aurora to be completed
Monday, December 16, 2013
Shoreline is closer to realizing the completion of a long-time community goal. The final segment of the City’s largest Capital Improvement Project, the Aurora Corridor Multimodal Improvement Project from N 192nd to N 205th Streets, will break ground in January.
The last segment of the Aurora Corridor Project includes similar amenities as the previous segments. However, topographical challenges and grade changes will result in six large retaining walls with extension into some of the cross streets. The project will also include a gateway sign at N 205th Street.
The total cost of this final segment is estimated at $42.6 million. Shoreline’s City Council approved award of the construction contract to Gary Merlino Construction Company. Construction is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2015, weather permitting.
Throughout all three miles of the Aurora Corridor Project, the City has brought residents’ tax dollars back into our community through federal and state grants and funded the corridor with no debt. On the final segment, 95.4% of the funding will come from non-City funds.
While the City has worked with many groups and individuals to gain feedback and direction for the project, construction can still be difficult and inconvenient for residents, businesses, and corridor users. Your continued patience has been and is greatly appreciated.
For additional information, an overview of the Aurora Project and construction updates once construction begins, visit the Aurora project pages. You may also email or call the 24-hour construction hotline at 206-801-2485 once construction begins.
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1 comments:
This is great news! This signature 3-mile project will be done in "only" 17 years after the process was started. It's unfortunate that it took that long, and some of that delay was due to the initial opposition by the Shoreline Merchants Association, some of whom wanted the narrowest possible sidewalks, no planting strip, and no center medians, suing to block the project. Fortunately, their majority came around, and - as many predicted at the time - seeing a finished section, the first mile - convinced many opponents of the merits of the project.
Even so, the length of time to get Aurora done is instructive in the challenge to improve an even longer stretch of road at our southern border - 145th Street. That one's 5 miles long (from Greenwood to Lake City/Bothell Way), presently has multiple owners (WSDOT, City of Seattle, King County, and Shoreline), and there's less than 10 years before a light rail station opens at 145th and NE 5th. That's why some of us are extremely skeptical about whether enough is going to be done to improve traffic flow...will it be the status quo or minimally-improved street, but with more traffic. We're waiting for city leaders to get off the dime and onto a well-publicized, all-out effort to acquire full ownership of this street and begin an intensive effort to improve it to where it needs to be, and that includes the approaches from both sides of I-5.
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