Work on S.R. 202 is updating area natural gas service
Published 4:59 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
When Valley residents encounter traffic delays on state Route 202 between Snoqualmie and North Bend during the next few months, they should keep in mind that the work being done will mean improved natural gas service for many years to come.
Puget Sound Energy has begun installing an underground natural gas main along the road to upgrade natural gas service to parts of south Snoqualmie and North Bend.
That main, an 8-inch-diameter pipe, will replace the current 4-inch-diameter pipe as the supply main.
Since the 4-inch main already has service lines (the small pipes that run from the curb to the meter on a house or building) hooked up to it, its future role will be to serve only as a distribution main, not as a supply and distribution main, which has been its purpose.
The 8-inch pipe will be able to move a greater volume of gas more quickly and should accommodate the growing Snoqualmie Valley area for at least 20 years, according to Dorothy Bracken of Puget Sound Energy.
PSE’s construction crew, Pilchuck Contractors, began installing the 8-inch-diameter wrapped-steel natural gas main at the Snoqualmie Parkway and S.R. 202 intersection the second week of January. The work will proceed on S.R. 202 for three miles to the wastewater treatment plant in North Bend. The project, advancing in approximately 280-foot increments per day, will require short portions of S.R. 202 to be reduced to one lane between the hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Detour signs and flaggers will help direct traffic.
Bracken said the cost of the total project wont be known until it is complete, but that it has a multimillion-dollar price tag.
We really dont know the cost until the end in case we run into something that could change the cost or if we get ahead of schedule, she said.
Infrastructure projects such as this one are planned for as part of PSEs utility operation budget. This particular project has been in the works for at least five years, Bracken said.
We know theres been tremendous growth, she said. And the natural gas system in the North Bend area has been fairly weak in past years.
The construction work is scheduled to be finished by the second week of April 2006. PSE designed the construction project in conjunction with the city of Snoqualmie, the city of North Bend, Washington State Department of Transportation and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Bracken said Fish and Wildlife had to approve the project because it comes so close to the river and crosses under Kimball Creek twice.
