Bids awarded for Soap Lake street rebuilding, resurfacing

SOAP LAKE — No start date has been established for two street repair projects planned for Soap Lake this summer. Contracts for the projects were awarded by the Soap Lake City Council last week. Tommer Construction, Ephrata, was awarded the bid on a project to resurface streets throughout town in an effort to prolong their life. Tommer bid $992,000. The city received a grant from the Washington Transportation Improvement Board to pay all the costs of the project. Selected streets will be resurfaced with a process known as scrub seal. Michael Woodkey of Gray and Osborne, the city’s engineers, said in an earlier interview that scrub sealing will slow down deterioration of city streets. It’s similar to chip seal, but it includes a step to push the rock and tar material into the existing cracks.