everyone subscribed, as well as to key stakeholders and the media. The updates notified of bridge closures, detour routes, water service line outages, and project progress. The website also allowed the design team and City staff to field comments from the public and typically respond within a day. The website became a powerful tool to share the project history, pur- pose, and timeline, as well as upcoming traffic impacts or detours. Additionally, the face-to-face communication by Selland Construc - tion, SCJ’s construction manager, and City staff was key to managing short-term interruptions to small businesses during their peak summer season. Through deliberate, anticipatory, clear, and consistent commu- nication, the public was kept well-informed of bridge closures and the reason behind them, reducing complaints. Awards • The project’s specialness and accomplishments have been recognized many times, including with two industry awards. • The City of Chelan'sWoodin Avenue Bridge Restoration Project was selected as the project of the year in the "Historic Less Than $5 Million" category by the Washington chapter of the Association of Public Works (APWA). • The Washington State Main Street Program selected the adjacent Woodin Avenue Landing Park for an Excellence on Main Award in the "Outstanding Special Project" category. Today Today the entrance to downtown Chelan is safer, more welcoming and has a new look, but maintains the same historic feeling. This project is a testament to how historic preservation projects can transform an aging bridge into a multi-use amenity that balances cars and multi- modal needs—all done while preserving the iconic look and character its community values. Traffic that once only passed through downtown, and conflicted with pedestrians, now goes around downtown. This has created a better balance between pedestrians and vehicles and a seamless pedestrian corridor from the bridge into downtown. The new streetscape around the bridge is comfortable, safe, and accessible to everyone. “It’s especially gratifying how this roadway reconfiguration project has made the entrance to downtown more inviting,” said Ireland. “Our work included widening 1,900 feet of sidewalks, adding 1,200 feet of new bike lanes, enhancing streetscapes and lighting, and adding the new Woodin Avenue Landing Park for the enjoyment of so many. It’s now a more active, enjoyable place to be and businesses love it! It’s very rewarding to see this project have such a positive impact on the community.” DAN IRELAND AND GREG HESS combined their expertise to design creative solutions for the multi-faceted Woodin Avenue Bridge project. Ireland is a civil engineer with SCJ Alliance Consulting Services and Hess is licensed as both a civil and structural engineer, working for KPFF Consulting Engineers. Both men work out of offices in Washington State, though they primarily find themselves working from home these days when not doing site visits. Dan and Greg have enjoyed helping communities, large and small, with their public works projects for nearly 20 years each.
ronment away from the bridge. The new lampposts also brought added value with LED lights that can be controlled remotely to change colors and brightness to match the season or for special events. Pedestrians & Vehicle Traffic Managing a project with multiple elements in a tight location, all while negotiating summer recreational vehicle and pedestrian traffic was not an easy task. It was a frequent comment amongst the team that cars were easier to manage than the thousands of summertime pedestrians. Selland staged their construction zones to make sure a pedestrian route was always in place, even during bridge closures. Converting the bridge into a one-way road after nearly 100 years was a dramatic change for the local community. The risk of drivers reverting to old habits was a great safety concern for the City. To prepare the community and tourists, the team used the following tactics to mitigate the safety risk:
• Project-specific traffic detour and signing plan • Strategic placement of portable message signs to alert drivers
• Public radio announcements • Project website notifications • Email blasts to project stakeholders • Social media notifications • Collaboration with the downtown association • Updates to Google Maps
One of the greatest challenges and successes was notifying the travel - ing public of changing traffic patterns and bridge closures. The City team was diligent at updating Google Maps to show temporary con- struction activities and eventually the bridge’s permanent change to one-way-only traffic. The focus and energy on this updating made a big difference to out-of-town tourists who were relying solely on their apps to navigate through the area. Creating an Information Hub for Project Communication The City invested in a project-specific website that SCJ created and managed. Every week after a construction meeting, the contractor’s schedule was uploaded to the website and an email blast was sent to
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september 2020
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