It was a celebration two-and-a-half years in the making.
On the afternoon of Monday, October 28, the City of Covington held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to formally mark the completion of the State Route 516 – Jenkins Creek to 185th Ave SE project in Covington, Washington.
There were plenty of reasons to celebrate that day: the long-anticipated project untangled Covington’s most-traveled and frequently gnarled roadway by expanding it from two to five lanes. The now-widened stretch of State Route 516 also includes a bridge over Jenkins Creek, a salmon-bearing waterway and critical aquatic habitat. Additionally, the once-shoulderless roadway now has dedicated lanes for cyclists and pedestrians.
GBI’s Washington Region began working on the Jenkins Creek project in May of 2022. The project was initially slated to be completed in June of 2024, but due to third-party delays, weather impacts, environmental complications and changes to the design and scope of work, it was ultimately completed in late October.
The two-phase project required a highly complex sequencing of work so that one travel lane each direction of the busy roadway could remain open while construction was underway. If the work necessitated any greater impact to the travel lanes, work was required to take place at night under alternating one-lane traffic control. In addition to widening approximately 3,000 LF of State Route 516, GBI completed a variety of road improvements, such as adding curbs and sidewalks, installing street lights, and landscaping. A primary scope of the work to widen the roadway necessitated the replacement of an existing box culvert with a new four-lane bridge built by GBI’s recent acquisition, Franklin Pacific. 
Additionally, GBI installed a two-season stream bypass in Jenkins Creek, built geosynthetic retaining walls and precast gravity block walls, and installed seven utility casings below the stream bed. The project also called for the installation of 50,000 LF of JUT conduit, 4,300 LF of water lines, 3,100 LF of storm lines, and 500LF of sewer systems. Throughout the project, GBI relocated multiple utilities, many of which had challenging tie-ins due to their proximity to traffic lanes and environmentally sensitive wetlands.
As the work progressed, the GBI project team encountered a series of challenges, including record-breaking rainfall, changes to the scope of work, design issues, sequencing conflicts, and unexpected site conditions resulting from working alongside an active waterway. GBI worked closely with the project’s owner and designer to resolve all issues as they arose, often re-sequencing the work to ensure there was sufficient time to find the best resolution.
Apart from drastically improving traffic flow in and out of Covington, the now-completed project also helps protect Jenkins Creek, which provides habitats for endangered, threatened, and sensitive species, including steelhead and Chinook salmon.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 28, the City of Covington acknowledged the efforts of those who contributed to the project’s success: Goodfellow Bros., WSP, Tetra Tech, Soos Creek Water and Sewer, City of Kent, Covington Water District, Washington State Department of Transportation, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, and Puget Sound Energy.
“The Jenkins Creek project was a very complex, challenging project for the Washington Region. The project faced many hurtles throughout the construction process, due to multiple factors, many of which were out of our control,” said GBI Project Manager David McDowell.
“Despite these challenges, the entire project team put in the extra effort to ensure that we kept the project progressing, working with the owner to resolve issues on the project, allowing us to ultimately complete the project as quickly and efficiently as possible despite the challenges we faced. Completing this project was truly a team effort and couldn’t have been done without the dedication of our project team. At the end of the day, we built something that GBI and the community are proud of.”
