State fixes Seattle Hill Road quickly, cheaply

Published 3:48 pm Monday, January 21, 2008

One of the favorite shortcuts from northbound I-5 to the city of Snohomish is back.

A section of Seattle Hill Road between Lowell-Larmier Road and 132nd Street SE was blown out by flooding on Dec. 3.

As many commuters know, that road has been open for weeks. However, repairs – including building a new retaining wall – did not finish until last week.

Although it may have seemed like it took a while to make repairs, they were actually finished faster than expected and at less cost.

The original estimate was that the road would be closed for six weeks and cost $3 million to $5 million to repair. Instead the road was reopened in three weeks and repairs cost $2 million, said Marlin Lenssen, a state Department of Transportation project engineer.

Let’s call it a case of getting the job done on time and under budget.