Reconstruction of Roberts Drive will begin soon, after the Black Diamond City Council accepted a $792,000 grant on Dec. 18 from the State Transportation Improvement Board to put toward the project.
The street upgrade and transformation will be from Sunny Lane to Lynch Lane. This project is being combined with the current Roberts Drive Reconstruction project at Rock Creek, where the Transportation Improvement Board had already committed a $474,300 grant. That brings the total TIB funds awarded to the city over the past two years to more than $1.26 million. The total combined project budget is more than $1.45 million, with a local much of $141,000 from real estate excise tax and $46,000 from developer YarrowBay.
The city of Black Diamond will contribute $6,700 of match for the first grant and $88,000 of match for the second, for a total city cash contribution of $94,700, according to Seth Boettcher, Black Diamond Public Works Director. These funds will come from REET, which can be spent of capital improvement projects. Boetccher said the city added a contingency to the first project of $47,000 of additional REET funds, meaning the city could spend as much as $141,700.
City staff say these projects will improve the Rock Creek Bridge, create a pedestrian walkway across the south side of the bridge, install a sidewalk on the south side of Roberts Drive from the bridge to Lynch Lane, install pedestrian lighting, overlay the existing roadway, install stormwater improvements and provide shoulder improvements.
Various forms of this project have been in the works for at least six years, according to Boettcher. He said the shoulders of the road are continual maintenance problems and that adding curbs and sidewalks provide better pedestrian safety.
“We’re trying to get it up to a more urban standard than a rural road,” he said.
Mayor Carol Benson, who is also part of the city’s Public Works Committee, has directed staff to expedite this project.
“We would like to move this newly funded project forward as quickly as possible so that we can combine the engineering, bid and construction effort with the Roberts Drive Reconstruction project at Rock Creek for more efficient use of funds,” Benson said in a press release. “Completing the two projects together will save administration and engineering costs and be more attractive to bidders.”
