TACOMA: Road funds being badly misused

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• Bellingham council approves $2M bid for street work

  Bellingham council approves $2M bid for street work

  BELLINGHAM - Colacurcio Brothers Construction will install bike lanes along a heavily used corridor between Interstate 5 and downtown, repave various streets and make safety improvements to Indian Street.

  The City Council on Monday, April 23, voted 7-0 to approve a $2 million bid from the Blaine-based company for various street work in 2012.

  The project involves everything from installing bike lanes along the Northwest Avenue-Elm Street-Dupont Street corridor to remarking Indian Street to include a "sharrow," or a shared cars-bicycles lane, in the downhill direction.

• Bid for Ferndale road project lower than city estimate

  Bid for Ferndale road project lower than city estimate

  FERNDALE - The city should pay less than officials expected for its biggest summer construction project, which will widen more than a half mile of Main Street west of downtown.

  The City Council on Monday, May 7, approved the lowest construction bid for the job, $3.59 million from RAM Construction of Bellingham. The city's estimate of the project cost was $4.66 million.

  The work schedule runs from June 4 through October.

• Bellingham to consider $2M bid for bike lanes, repaving

  Bellingham to consider $2M bid for bike lanes, repaving

  BELLINGHAM - City leaders likely will approve spending $2 million for street repaving, bike-lane installation and construction of bulbed-out sidewalks and pedestrian crossings in 2012.

  The City Council on Monday, April 23, will consider approving the project bid, which was 5 percent under estimate, from Blaine-area Colacurcio Brothers Construction.

  Included in the project is the controversial plan to install bike lanes along the Northwest Avenue-Elm Street-Dupont Street corridor, providing bike lanes between Interstate 5 and downtown. The installation requires removing on-street parking along the west side of the streets. Some business owners and residents in the area had objected to the removal of the parking spots.

• Power-pole removal to start on Ferndale's Main Street

  Power-pole removal to start on Ferndale's Main Street

  FERNDALE - Drivers should be careful as crews work on the south side of Main Street, between Douglas and Church roads, moving power poles to make room for a road-widening project, city officials said.

  The work will begin Monday, May 14, and likely continue into June. The road project is scheduled to start Monday, June 4.

  This stretch of Main Street, more than a half-mile long, will get a center turn lane, bicycle lanes and sidewalks. The work will be completed by October at the earliest.

• Bellingham council holds hearing on six-year transportation plan, work session next

  Bellingham council holds hearing on six-year transportation plan, work session next

  BELLINGHAM - Officials will study the possibility of reducing the number of lanes on Alabama Street and installing a center turn lane and bike lanes, as part of a project to reduce crashes.

  But if that study shows such a change wouldn't work for the heavily traveled eastern section of Alabama, neighbors still want the city to consider it for the western end, said Patrick McKee, chairman of the Sunnyland Neighborhood Association.

  An Alabama Street project is one of the many projects on the city's draft six-year transportation improvement plan. The City Council on Monday, May 21, held a hearing on the plan. No final decisions were made, and the council is scheduled to hold a work session on the plan on June 4.