Joint venture formed for US$ 306 million highway project

Eastside Corridor Constructors (ECC), a 60:40 joint venture between Granite Construction and contractor PCL Construction Services, has won the US$ 306 million contract to reconstruct State Route 520 in King County, Washington, US.

The project involves widening and redeveloping the highway from the Lake Washington Floating Bridge to the Interstate 405 connector.

The project includes the construction of three landscaped bridges over the Highway, R 520, and adding high-occupancy vehicle lanes, bus rapid transit stations and direct access ramps to surface streets.

The project also involves major retaining walls, sound walls, lighting, utility relocations and landscaping work.

ECC will also convert the Lake Washington Floating Bridge into to an electronic toll road with toll collection beginning in the spring of 2011. Funds collected will be used toward part of the construction costs and any future improvements and maintenance on the stretch of highway.

The ECC partnership will also be responsible for environmental improvements to increase drainage containment, improve fish habitat, and open drainage systems to fish passage.

California-based Granite Construction said it would book the contract into backlog during the fourth quarter of this year.

The project is due for completion by February 2014.