As Covington officials celebrate the completion of one phase of road work they are gearing up for the next project — widening Southeast 272nd Street from the Jenkins Creek bridge to 185th Street Southeast.

Major work was complete on the most recent phase from Southeast Wax Road to the bridge in December, Covington Public Works Director Glenn Akramoff explained, but the city has been going through punch list items and tying up loose ends in recent months.

The plan was to celebrate the end of that project — which included widening Kent Kangley Road, putting in sidewalks, a media, landscaping and so on — with a ribbon cutting on Wednesday.

“It was funded by the state,” Akramoff said. “Our local legislators at the time got us $2 million dollars for the corridor. We spent — not all of it — but a good chunk to do widening. We partnered with the Covington Water District so they could do some of their improvements during the project.”

Total cost of the project, which members of the 47th Legislative District acquired in 2009, was $2.1 million, about $500,000 under the original estimates for the work, Akramoff noted.

Work began in March 2010 and was substantially complete in December.

“It was a pretty complicated project, not in length, because it’s a pretty short stretch,” Akramoff said. “But, because it’s the busiest intersection, not just on top of the surface but underneath. There were a lot of challenges to building it.”

Now that project is done Covington officials can now shift their focus to the next one.

“We’re looking at using the money we have remaining to work on the next phase,” Akramoff said. “We should begin designing the next phase by the end of the year. We’re looking at funding options for that, but, you have to have a design before you can start shopping around to build it.”

First, a design for a new bridge to span across Jenkins Creek needs to be done, because the current bridge is two lanes wide with a lane going each direction.

Kent Kangley Road is a heavily traveled arterial and needs to be widened from the bridge from two lanes to four with a turn lane.

“The next phase is the big one for us,” Akramoff said. “We couldn’t have gotten to that without doing this section. We have a lot of people who use that (road) to go to our city and through it.”

One of the concerns for getting the project done as quickly as possible is the master planned developments planned by Kirkland-based developer YarrowBay.

The two developments would add 6,000 homes as well as businesses and schools. This could bring even more cars to Kent Kangley as commuters drive west in the morning from Black Diamond to get to work then return eastbound in the evenings.

And there is a piece of the east side of the city that already doesn’t meet concurrency, Akramoff said, so, “we know we have to build this portion in order to sole it.”

Covington has worked out an agreement with YarrowBay for road mitigation funding but Akramoff explained it was better to get this next chunk of Kent Kangley widened before any dirt is turned in Black Diamond.

Plus, once the road is widened the choke point from Wax Road to 185th will be eased, making it more convenient for people to drive to Covington and patronize businesses so it will have a positive effect on economic development as well.

Akramoff added there will be a public process before the design and construction process begins.

The goal is to not just get input from nearby businesses and residents but also from motorists who drive on that stretch of road on a regular basis.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time, so, it’s exciting to get there,” Akramoff said.

Reach Kris Hill at khill@covingtonreporter.com or 425-432-1209 ext. 5054.

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