Will soon open River Road roundabout

We’re getting close to opening the fourth and final roundabout on the Guide Meridian at the River Road intersection near Lynden. We haven’t determined the exact date it will open because it depends on the weather. Just know that we’re close, very close.



We need two days of good, dry weather – which may prove difficult to find – to pave the roundabout intersection and finish some electrical work. The electrical work is for the street lights we're installing to brighten the intersection.

Cable barrier pics

As many of you have probably already noticed, we have the cable barrier installed between Ten Mile Road and Pole Road.

Pics of the concrete pour at Nooksack bridge

Crews started pouring concrete at the Nooksack River Bridge on Thursday, Nov. 12.






We'll pour the concrete in three stages and it will take 10 days to complete.

Mash up of Guide work

We are past due for an update on the gamut of work happening along the Guide. So here’s a mash up of the bigger items we’re working on.

Right now our primary focus is on the Nooksack River and Fish Trap Creek bridges. The plan is to start pouring the concrete bridge deck (driving surface) for the Nooksack River Bridge on Tuesday, Nov. 10. (A side note about the concrete: Because of the weight of the concrete and the way it causes the bridge to settle, we won’t pour it all at once. If we poured too much at one time, the concrete would crack as the bridge settled. We'll pour the concrete in three sections and it will take 10 days to complete.) After we finish the bridge deck, then we’ll install barrier and finish paving the approaches to the bridge. We hope to start installing the girders for the Fish Trap Creek Bridge in two weeks. Once the girders are in place, we can then form and pour the deck, and then install barrier.

Getting the Nooksack bridge ready for concrete.


We’re busy installing the concrete supports and metal posts for the cable barrier between Ten Mile Road and Pole Road. It’ll be another week before we start stringing the cable. The posts sit in concrete and we need to allow the concrete to attain its strength before we tension the cable.

Heads up for those of you who live along the Guide in the area of the cable barrier; we are moving mailboxes back to the side of the road you live on. The mailboxes were moved to one side of the road during construction to provide safe access for the mail carrier and yourself.

The Wiser Lake Road roundabout is still one lane and will remain that way until we get the section of roadway from Pole Road to Wiser Lake Road completed. It won’t be long before we get the stretch of road to the north open to four lanes.

The weather plays a key factor in our ability to keep moving forward this time of year. We’ve factored some less-than-favorable weather into our schedule, so as long as it doesn’t turn too nasty, then we should have the highway open to four lanes before the Olympics.

Cable barrier going in north of Ten Mile Road

Now that we have three roundabouts open, we can install the cable median barrier. Crews have started installing cable median barrier from Ten Mile Road north for three miles to Wiser Lake Road. Eventually, the barrier will extend another mile north to Fishtrap Creek. This is in a continued effort to improve safety and relieve congestion. The barrier will help prevent dangerous crossover and t-bone collisions.

(Drilling machine bores holes in the median for the cable barrier posts.)


The barrier will help keep errant vehicles from crossing the median and colliding with oncoming traffic, and it will restrict left turns on and off the highway.

(Close up view of a single post installed.)


(A number of posts are installed. The cable will come later.)


There were 53 people injured in 55 collisions along this section of the Guide from 2002 to 2007. The two most prolific kinds of collisions were crossover/head-on collisions with 27, and enter-at-angle/turning collisions with 26.

While left turns will be prohibited at most intersections and driveways, roundabouts have been strategically placed at four key intersections – Ten Mile Road, Pole Road, Wiser Lake Road and soon to be River Road - to help drivers get where they want to go safely.

The barrier has an added benefit for WSDOT maintenance crews. It will allow north Whatcom County’s typical blowing, drifting snow to move across the highway unimpeded without building hazardous snowdrifts.

To view pictures of cable barrier successfully catching and stopping vehicles from crossing medians across the state, view WSDOT’s Flickr.com picture account.

Pictures of Wiser Lake Road roundabout

Here are some pictures of the recently opened Wiser Lake Road roundabout.

It's in a temporary, one-lane configuration for right now. Crews have to finish the curbs on the center island before we can stripe and open it to two lanes. We hope to have it finished in the next couple weeks.


A semitruck driving through the roundabout.

Third Guide roundabout open at Wiser Lake Road

For the third time in six months, we have opened another new roundabout on the Guide. Crews opened the roundabout at the Wiser Lake Road intersection today (Wednesday afternoon).

The roundabout is open in a temporary one-lane configuration while crews finish up the interior center island curbing. Crews hope to open it to its final two-lane configuration in the next couple weeks.

With the roundabout open, it means that access to and from West Wiser Lake Road is open again at the intersection.

This is the third in a series of four roundabouts. The first roundabout opened at Ten Mile Road on Saturday, May 16, and the second opened at Pole Road on Sunday, July 26. The fourth and last roundabout will open at River Road later this year.