When shoppers headed to The Marketplace at Factoria mall in Bellevue, WA this holiday season, they might have noticed something different on Factoria Boulevard—especially on a rainy day.
For years, the bustling thoroughfare had experienced repeated flooding during heavy rainstorms. On one occasion, a storm inundated Factoria Boulevard with nearly four feet of water, rendering the road impassible and flooding nearby businesses. Today, the formerly flood-prone roadway has been transformed—and just in time for the busy holiday shopping season.
In January of 2024, GBI’s Washington Region began work on the construction of a stormwater conveyance system, or new storm culvert, designed to mitigate flooding on Factoria Boulevard. With the 2024 holiday season in mind, the project’s hard end date for substantial completion was set for November 11, 2024. Our team completed the project 14 days ahead of schedule on October 28, 2024.
The primary scope of work included the replacement of a segment of stormwater pipe with approximately 450 feet of a larger concrete box culvert conveyance system 10 to 15 feet underneath Factoria Boulevard’s northbound lanes. The new conveyance system drains into the neighboring Richards Creek, in which Goodfellow Bros. (GBI) completed several channel improvements. Other project items included various improvements to the surrounding storm system, sewer and water work, settlement monitoring, installing new signal and luminaire systems, and general roadside restoration.
This project was complex in nature, but true to form, GBI devised ways to safely and efficiently perform the work. For example, much of the surrounding area’s storm drainage flowed through the project’s system. To address this, GBI deployed a storm bypass system that was rated to handle 28,000 GPM, which proved to be challenging due to the confined space of the worksite.
Additionally, the installation of the box culvert and adjacent utility work required specialized shoring and navigating around critical existing utilities. Traditional waler and strut systems involve a significant amount of welding and removals, which can be very time-consuming. Quick completion of this project was paramount, so GBI opted to use a relatively new type of shoring system—called a mega brace system—to expedite the shoring process. This heavy-duty, high-load capacity hydraulic bracing system supports excavations by taking the place of walers and struts to reinforce the I-beams. It was the first time GBI’s Washington Region used the mega brace system, and it very likely won’t be the last.
There were many existing utilities on the project site, including a section of the Olympic Pipeline, a 400-mile-long pipeline system that transports refined petroleum products from Washington to Oregon. Working around the pipeline required a high level of caution, as well as the assistance of pipeline inspectors. In addition to the Olympic Pipeline, an existing 36-inch water line ran parallel to thebox culvert. As a result, GBI had to monitor vertical and horizontal displacement with very tight specifications. On top of the known existing utilities, there were many unknown utilities and conditions that further added to the difficulties. Despite these challenges, GBI completed the work with no major utility incidents.
Throughout this highly complex project, GBI proposed innovative ideas to accelerate the construction process, while minimizing road delays and maintaining access to the businesses located on both sides of Factoria Boulevard.
“The Factoria Boulevard project proved to be a great opportunity for our Washington Region,” said GBI Project Engineer Devon Walters. “The job’s unique complexities reinforced our group’s belief that we can perform any project successfully, no matter the challenge, with the gifted team we have.”
The significance of this project cannot be overstated. If the City of Bellevue had not expanded and improved the capacity of the existing storm drainage system, more flooding events on Factoria Boulevard would have occurred, causing further disruption in the area.
The GBI Washington Region project team recently received a thank you message from City of Bellevue Construction Services Manager Ryan Shelton. In his message, Shelton wrote: “I’d like to thank you on behalf of the [City of Bellevue] Utility Department for your commitment to building a quality project and working with us to resolve issues and ultimately completing the work on schedule. Who would’ve thought—with all of the Olympic Pipeline coordination at the onset of the project, utility conflicts, etc.—that we would be done prior to Turkey Day. I sure didn’t think so and I believe that is a testament to the Goodfellow Bros. team.”
Above: Drone Flight April 9, 2024 / Below: Drone Flight October 11, 2024
