BY BRIAN KELLY
Herald Writer
Hard hats are required. Good galoshes should be, too.
A small group of Snohomish County employees got the nickel tour of the county’s new $29 million underground parking garage last week.
Inside the 6 1/2-floor facility, construction continues amid a forest of steel shoring bars that support the upper levels while the concrete cures.
But the lowest levels are largely finished and don’t need much more work.
"Just paint, and stripe the floors," said Randy Erickson, superintendent of the project.
Construction of the garage began in October 2002. With roughly 1,200 parking spots, it will replace the county’s original 503-stall facility.
It’s part of the new county government campus in Everett, a $170 million makeover that includes an expansion of the county jail, a new administration building and a public plaza. The construction project is the largest in history for Snohomish County government.
The garage is expected to open Feb. 26, before the Everett Silvertips’ hockey season ends across the street at the Everett Events Center.
Late last week, almost 90 workers scurried about the unfinished building, spraying concrete on the walls of the final decks, installing elevators and wrapping up other work.
Cars coming into the new garage will enter through a tunnel off Pacific Avenue. Work on the tunnel will begin the first week in February.
"It will be an open cut when we first dig it, then we’ll put a lid over the top of it and cover it back up," Erickson said. "Then it will be landscaped over the top again."
He said the biggest challenge has been digging the hole for the garage. Roughly 190,000 cubic yards of soil was removed.
"This is a unique job," said Marty Glass, general foreman with Mortenson Co., the contractor and construction management company. "We’re going 90 feet down on one end of the building."
The soil was saturated with water behind the outer walls of the garage, and that made the project even tougher.
"It was an everyday challenge," Glass said.
Water is still an occasional problem. Streams of water pour through holes that were drilled in each deck, skinny waterfalls that drop almost 10 feet before forming large puddles on the floor. Combined with the constant whoosh of concrete known as shotcrete being sprayed on the upper levels, it gives the garage the sound of a car wash.
"Without the top done, every time it rains … we just get deluged with water down here," Erickson said.
That will change once the final lid is put on the garage. A public plaza featuring an amphitheater and an outdoor cafe will be built on top of the garage later.
The plaza won’t be finished, however, until the new administration building is completed in early 2005.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
