Richland, Wash. - The City of Richland recently selected RCI Construction Group (Sumner, Wash.) for construction of the Horn Rapids Sewer Trunk Project.

The $3.1 million project consists of 6,100 lin. ft. of deep trenched, 42-in. reinforced concrete pipe; 1,000 lin. ft. of 8- to 12-in. PVC sewer; 21 manholes, 48- to 96-in. in diameter; four bored and cased crossings; and repair of existing surface improvements, all of which is below the existing water table.

RCI is familiar with the Tri-Cities area. The firm's affiliate, RCI Environmental Inc., has had an ongoing office in the Tri-Cities for more than 10 years performing low level radioactive waste remediation.

Seattle - The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks has selected HDR Engineering (Bellevue, Wash.) to provide predesign services for the regional Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant Conveyance System.

The Brightwater conveyance system includes facilities to transport wastewater to, and treated effluent from, the Brightwater Treatment Plant. Facilities also include a marine outfall to discharge the treated effluent into Puget Sound.

Currently there are two proposed alternative locations for the new plant - either within the City of Edmonds or a site near Route 9 in Snohomish County north of Woodinville, Wash. Alternate conveyance corridors have been developed for each site and have been included in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) Scoping Notice. As part of the siting process, two alternative outfall locations between Edmonds and Shoreline also have been identified.

Depending upon the selected treatment plant site, the conveyance facilities will consist of between 12 and 20 miles of tunnel and micro-tunnel sections. The conveyance tunnels will vary in diameter from 6 to 14 ft. to convey flows of up to 170 million gallons per day to the new Brightwater treatment plant. Conveyance facilities will also include surface pipes or micro-tunnels to connect existing King County interceptors to the new Brightwater conveyance system.

The predesign contract includes services for the completion of the environmental, permitting and corridor selection process from the DEIS through the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and engineering predesign. Engineering services include up to 25 percent predesign for the selected land-based conveyance and marine outfall systems.

Olympia - A network of Whitman County highways is one step closer to becoming the state's newest scenic byway following the Washington State Transportation Commission's approval of a resolution for designation of the Palouse Country Scenic Byway. As a result of the recent commission action, the proposal can now be taken forward for legislative action.

The Palouse Country Scenic Byway Organization, area communities, and the state's Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED) worked with the Department of Transportation to develop the scenic byway proposal. CTED provided the byway organization an initial $10,000 grant through its "Great Ideas Program" as seed money for public involvement and planning for the state byway designation. With a scenic byway designation, the highways become eligible for federal funding for transportation and traveler improvements along the byway.

The proposed byway is comprised of 160 miles of state highways. A first of its kind proposal for the state, the byway includes a "hub and spoke" system of roadways that would market several routes as a single scenic byway. The routes traverse Whitman County and feature many of the attractions and unique landscapes found in the Palouse Region. State highways included in this proposal are:

• US 195, from Pullman south through Colton and Uniontown, to the Idaho border
  
• State Route (SR) 27, from Pullman north to Palouse, Garfield, Oakesdale, and Tekoa
  
• SR 271, from Oakesdale north to Rosalia
  
• US 195, from Rosalia south to Colfax and Pullman
  
• SR 26, from Colfax west through Dusty and LaCrosse, ending at the Palouse River at the Whitman County border.