It's a Date Avenue sidewalk, utilities revamp

Sultan city officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week, to celebrate the completion of the Date Avenue road rehabilitation project.

The event took place at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 23, in front of Sultan Elementary School, 501 Date Ave. The grant-funded project rehabilitated Dave Avenue from Fourth Street to 150 feet east of Fifth Place, using a technique known as full-depth reclamation. The project included utility improvements and replacing the existing curb, gutter and 5-foot sidewalk.

The city of Sultan received approximately $250,000 from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) to complete the transportation portion of the work.-á

Sultan Mayor Carolyn Eslick commended consulting firm Gray and Osborne and general contractor SRV Construction for expediting the process, so that the project was completed before the start of the school year. SRV has accomplished numerous transportation improvement projects in Sultan, including Fourth Street, High Avenue and Alder.

"They've done an outstanding job for us,GÇ¥ Eslick said.-á -á

Attendees included Washington Sen. Kirk Pearson, TIB executive director Steve Gorcester, Sultan city councilmembers Rocky Walker, John Seehuus, Sarah Davenport-Smith and Marianne Naslund, Sultan Public Works Director and TIB board member Mick Matheson, Sultan Grants and Economic Development Coordinator Donna Murphy, SES principal Laurel Anderson and Sultan School District Superintendent Dan Chaplik.

The TIB is a state-funded agency that provides grant opportunities to communities to improve their roadways. TIB revenue is generated from the state gas tax, and roadways must meet specific criteria to be eligible for funding.

The agency awards approximately $100 million each year for transportation projects across the state. The goal of the TIB, said Gorcester, is to improve pavement conditions and connectivity across Washington by funding safe, ADA-accessible sidewalks and smooth roadways.

"You can see it happening all around Sultan,GÇ¥ Gorcester said. "This is just one of several examples.GÇ¥

The TIB portion of the project also included LED streetlights. Gorcester said that the TIB has started an initiative to replace streetlights in small cities across the state with LED lights for a 55-percent cost reduction.-á

The city of Sultan's obligation for transportation work was $28,600. Public Works Director Mick Matheson said the full-depth reclamation technique for improving roadways saves costs because the old roadway doesn't need to be hauled away. Instead, the existing base material is tilled in with cement, spread out and then paved over.

"In a full reconstruction project, you go in and you remove all the old road section and haul it away, which is expensive,GÇ¥ Matheson said. "In this case, to save on those costs, we kept the existing base material, but then ground in the cement.GÇ¥

The utility improvements included replacing an asbestos cement water main with ductile iron and replacing and lining different parts of the sewer line. Since TIB funds can only be used on transportation projects, the city contributed a total of $122,000 for the water and sewer improvements.

TIB funding, said Matheson, is critical to small cities like Sultan, which has limited funding to complete major transportation projects. The city gets approximately $12,000 per year for road preservation and maintenance, which is typically used for an overlay or chip-seal project.

"We're really limited on where we can get resources to pay for transportation improvements,GÇ¥ Matheson said. "So the Transportation Improvement Board is key.GÇ¥