May 12—The legal battle between Spokane Valley and the contractors who built City Hall for $14 million rages on — and it's getting more expensive. On May 3, the Spokane Valley City Council agreed to set aside $700,000 to cover ongoing legal expenses and repair costs related to City Hall, which opened in 2017. Roughly half of that money will go toward attorneys fees and other costs associated ... Read More

Oregon adopted permanent job site rules Tuesday mandating that employers take steps to protect workers from extreme heat and wildfire smoke. The heat rules take effect June 15 while the wildfire rules go into effect July 1. The regulations, adopted by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division, lay out specific steps employers must take once the temperature or air quality reaches a ... Read More

May 10—Construction on the Waterfront Seattle project has been delayed because of a lack of concrete delivery availability, brought on by the concrete drivers' strike in King County, according to the Seattle Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects. Completion of the project, originally slated for 2024, is now set for 2025. The strike began Dec. 3. Teamsters Local 174 union said concrete ... Read More

May 9—Sound Transit's board members could decide by June who will succeed CEO Peter Rogoff and oversee the nation's biggest public transportation expansion program, for a salary of $300,000 to $400,000 per year. "This is no small task, but it will be incredibly rewarding," says a recruiting brochure. Rogoff's successor will be charged with managing ST3, the voter-approved plan to build 12 rail ... Read More

EAST BREMERTON – Plans to demolish the former Harrison Medical Center campus have reached Bremerton City Hall. Virginia Mason Franciscan Health has begun the regulatory process to tear down what amounts to 465,000 square feet of a sprawling hospital complex that opened in 1965 off Cherry Avenue in East Bremerton. "We're finally here," said Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler, who has discussed the ... Read More

Apr. 29—The secretaries of Energy and Agriculture addressed Tri-Cities area concerns Thursday, including the importance of saving the lower Snake River dams, funding at the Hanford nuclear reservation and plans for an advanced new nuclear plant. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., used his position on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee to make sure the national leaders were aware of how Biden ... Read More

Apr. 28—Sound Transit has fallen months behind schedule in its quest to operate trains across Lake Washington by June 2023, as managers blame construction errors, a concrete delivery strike, COVID-19, frayed supply chains and even bad weather. The 14-mile, $3.7 billion route connecting Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue and the Overlake area is expected to serve 48,000 daily passengers. It was ... Read More

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska lawmakers are considering a request by Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration that the state take over part of a federal environmental permitting program, though some members of the Senate's budget-writing committee have expressed concerns with the potential costs. Administration officials have said the idea behind the proposal is to speed the construction of roads, ... Read More

PORTLAND, Oregon, April 22 -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service Oregon office issued the following news release on April 21, 2022:Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest $420 million in 132 infrastructure projects in 31 states, including a $2,770,095 investment in 3 projects in Oregon. These ... Read More