Jun. 30--The first major facility at the massive Hanford vitrification plant has been started up -- a key milestone toward beginning to treat radioactive waste at the plant. Startup of the Analytical Laboratory, one of the four major facilities handling nuclear waste at the vit plant, also is a contract milestone for the contractor for the vit plant, Bechtel National. It will receive $6.6 ... Read More

Jun. 30--Armed with carbon strips and steel cables, construction workers will soon begin emergency shoring of the West Seattle Bridge in an effort that could last until late October. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), in a blog post describing the methods, said Monday that the job will begin this week. The first step is to reopen more than 100 holes on the edges of the deck that ... Read More

Jun. 16--Residents are speaking out and emailing the Port of Olympia in opposition to an option-to-lease proposal now under consideration on port-owned land in Tumwater. At Monday's Port of Olympia commission meeting, the commission received its third consecutive briefing about a preliminary step in the leasing process that would allow the Panattoni company to explore a 200-acre parcel in ... Read More

May 31--The largest habitat restoration project ever attempted on the lower Columbia River begins Monday at Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The project, nearly seven years in the making and involving nearly a dozen public agencies and private groups, aims to ease fish passage, mitigate flood risks and boost recreation at the 1,049-acre refuge. It's expected to take two years to ... Read More

May 13--The Department of Energy's strategy for pretreating high-level waste at Hanford is "unclear" 20 years after construction of a massive glassification plant began, while costs continue to soar, says a new federal report. The Government Accountability Office released a report to Congress this week focusing on the plant's Pretreatment Facility, where construction stopped seven years ago ... Read More

May 11--The West Seattle Bridge, closed in March because of excessive cracking, might have been doomed since the day it opened in 1984. City officials have listed several factors that could have contributed to the damage, including more and heavier buses and trucks, a seventh lane added years ago, a jammed rubber bearing that thwarts thermal expansion, and even the 2001 Nisqually earthquake. ... Read More

May 10--Before the coronavirus pandemic, King County Metro was defying a trend. As fewer people rode buses in cities all over America, riders were flocking to board here. Metro couldn't hire and train drivers fast enough and didn't have enough space at its maintenance bases to keep up with demand. All that has changed. The coronavirus outbreak has decimated ridership, kept some drivers and ... Read More

May 5--Seattle will spend about $8 million to buy and prepare a site in Northgate for the construction of a new fire station. The City Council voted Monday to allocate the money and authorize the purchase. The new Fire Station 31 will replace an existing station at 1319 N. Northgate Way that shut down in June due to concerns about conditions there, including mold. Firefighters had nicknamed ... Read More

A 38-year-old Beaverton man is accused of evading more than $65 million in employment and income taxes by allegedly paying Portland-area construction workers and subcontractors under the table. Victor Hugo Lopez-Diaz and other unnamed conspirators cashed about $185 million in payroll checks at check-cashing businesses and then paid construction workers in cash while filing false corporation, ... Read More

A laundry list of powerful Oregon politicians asked Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday to use her coronavirus emergency powers to fast-track a privately operated 100-bed inpatient mental health facility in Wilsonville. Universal Health Services, which already operates Cedar Hills in Southwest Portland, is several months into a second attempt to earn state approval to build an inpatient mental health ... Read More