Grade Road Repairs

The rebuilding of Grade Road between the 30th St NE/Catherine Drive intersection and the 32nd St NE intersection is complete. When the installation of a guardrail on the east side of the roadway is done the City will reopen the roadway. It has been closed since a year ago this month due to the undermining of the roadway by Catherine Creek which runs alongside the road on the east side. The creek had been eroding the earth under the road for a long time. The City had been monitoring this, but, one Monday morning, it was decided--rightly so--that the lack of dirt created a huge hazard for the traveling public.

 

Because of environmental issues and the requirements related to fish spawning streams, the City as forced to delay the rebuilding of the road until there was very little flowing water in the Creek. Marshbank Construction of Lake Stevens was given the contract to rebuild. Local company, local jobs. Here are photos of the finished road. In a recent memo, City Councilman Sam Low thanked residents along and adjacent to Grade Road for their patience for the past twelve months.

 

Broad view of the edge of the creek adjacent to Grade Road. The creek is by the logs and heads south to the standing trees. The large grey rock pile in the forefront is to disperse the runoff from the road surface. There's three of these in this section.

 

 

This is a close up of the rip rap in the creek bed. These stalks will soon grow into bushes that will be used by numerous animal life in the stream bed.