Construction on North Bend’s new roundabout will begin this summer as the city council unanimously approved Active Construction Inc. as the contractor for the project.

The roundabout will be located at the intersection of North Bend Way and Park Street. In addition to the roundabout itself, crosswalks and sidewalks will be at all legs of the intersection and water mains will be replaced along North Bend Way from Park Street to Southeast Orchard Drive. Landscaping and lighting work also will be added.

At the May 21 city council meeting, the council discussed approval of the contractor and directed staff to expedite additional improvements.

Speaking in favor of the approval, Councilmember Chris Garcia noted the safety and traffic flow improvements the roundabout will bring.

“This is a huge project for the city of North Bend, and it’s exciting to see this get done,” he said. “It’s the safety of eliminating the left turn chaos out of QFC. It’s people being able to get around that whole block. It’ll help people merge onto Park Street which could hopefully take some of the traffic out of our downtown that we’re after.”

Active Construction was the lowest responsive bidder to the request for proposal and the company’s estimate came in $4,000 under budget. The construction contract came in at more than $2.1 million. with additional improvement contracts, the total project cost comes to $2.6 million.

During construction, two lanes will stay open to maintain traffic flow. Construction is slated to begin in mid-June and is expected to be complete in mid-October.