WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Work to build a new maintenance building will require a temporary one-day closure of a portion of the Mill Creek Project office parking lot and nearby horse-trailer area on Thursday, Aug. 11, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials at the Walla Walla District announced today.
For safety reasons, visitors are asked to not enter any fenced construction areas along the north side of the parking lot (facing Mill Creek). Other areas of the paved parking lot will remain open to visitors during this time.
Contractors will be using the graveled trailer parking area near the office to store construction materials and transport them to the work site as needed. Considering the potential for animals to be startled by the heavy equipment used to move materials, visitors with horses are asked to use the trailer parking area at Bennington Lake while the maintenance building is under construction. The building is slated for completion in mid-October.
The Corps awarded a $657,760 design-build contract to Burton Construction Inc., of Spokane, Washington, to perform the work. The temporary closure of parking stalls along Mill Creek is necessary to accommodate construction material delivery activities and large construction-type equipment and vehicles.
The new 42-by-32-feet, two-story, maintenance building will replace the old maintenance building constructed in the 1970s. The new maintenance building will provide needed space to maintain the larger vehicles and equipment, as well as room for safe and secure storage.
“Through decades of changing maintenance needs and safety requirements, the old building became a limiting factor in terms of what could be stored, worked on and what vehicles could fit within,” said Walla Walla District Project Manager Simeon Francis. “By the turn of the century, it no longer met modern building codes, like electrical, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and more. It also wasn’t very energy efficient and didn’t meet current operations staff needs. There just wasn’t enough room for staff, equipment and materials storage, and working space.”
For more information about Mill Creek Dam and Bennington Lake, call the Mill Creek office at 509-527-7160 or visit their Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/millcreekdam.
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