The King County Road Services Division is putting the finishing touches on another record construction season. But, this time there is some uncertainty as to whether the county will be able to accomplish this much work again in the near future.

For the past two years, the county has used bond proceeds to finance a backlog of projects to improve roads in unincorporated King County. It has also been a very productive time for rebuilding and repairing the county’s aging bridges. The county intended to pay off those bonds and supplement bridge funding with revenues from the $15 local option vehicle license fee.

Last week, the State Supreme Court upheld Initiative 776, which sought to limit vehicle registration fees to a flat annual fee of $30 – eliminating the extra $15 that had been split between King County and local cities for many years.

"This could end up costing King County and local cities as much as $100 million over the next six years," said County Executive Ron Sims. "That’s $100 million we won’t have available to spend making our roads and bridges safer and more efficient, and it could limit our ability to expand our transportation network."

The Road Services Division has been particularly proud of the last two construction seasons. Using the bond money, the division has been able to carry out many more projects than in previous years. In 2002, almost $70 million was spent on road construction projects, and preliminary estimates put the total at $80 million for this year.

The 2003 construction season was marked by some significant bridge projects, including new bridges in Preston, Skykomish, and across the Cedar River. The division also completed its portion of Highlands Drive, an integrated road network that provides a new corridor between Interstate 90 and the Sammamish Plateau.

Traditionally, the road construction season wraps up in October due to the return of the wet weather and the return of spawning salmon. Because King County is criss-crossed by lakes and streams, most road and bridge projects are in close proximity to salmon spawning beds. So, construction must occur within a specific summertime "fish window" when salmon activity is at its lowest level.

But, the Roads Division has been getting smarter about working around both the rain and the fish.

"We’re doing a lot more year-round construction than we used to," said Division Director Linda Dougherty. "We are being more strategic in planning out and sequencing the projects, so that we aren’t idle over the winter and that we optimize the summer months for construction."

Some of the work that will be under way in the coming months involves projects on South 277th Street near Kent, on Northeast 124th Street near Redmond, and the Elliott Bridge between Renton and Maple Valley.

The stylized and colorful Ts have been popping up throughout the Sound Transit district for the past three years. Soon, the Washington State Department of Transportation will add the Regional T to its network of highway signs.

Recently, the crews removed rotten sections of timber piles under the Lake Dorothy Bridge and replaced them with steel casings. This is the first time the county has performed this type of repair while keeping the bridge open to traffic. Normally, when repairing pilings, the roadway has to be closed because the entire bridge deck has to be removed to expose the pilings. With the pilings exposed, they are then encased with a cement sleeve approximately six inches thick; this thick shell installed around multiple pilings encroaches into the stream channel and restricts flow through the waterway.

But on the Lake Dorothy project, bridge engineers and maintenance staff devised a way to use half-inch thick steel cans on the damaged pilings, instead of the thicker cement shells. The change in method kept the bridge open to traffic throughout construction.

• Service is cancelled for routes 45, 46, 76, 77, 79, 133, 167, 197, 202, 205, 272, 277, 304, 308, 311, and 373;
• School Custom Bus routes and school trips on regular-service routes are cancelled.

Metro customer service and Rider Information offices will be closed.