Newcastle drivers should be aware of a few upcoming traffic impacts connected to various construction projects.

First, Lakemont Boulevard Southeast will be closed between Forest Drive Southeast and 155th Avenue Southeast starting at 5 a.m. June 20. It will reopen at 5 a.m. June 22 with alternating one-way traffic.

Drivers will be detoured onto Forest Drive Southeast, Coal Creek Parkway or Newcastle Golf Club Road, depending on where they are coming from. View the full detour map here.

While Lakemont Boulevard is not in Newcastle, many residents use it as an alternate way into the city, especially those coming from Issaquah. The closure is necessary to complete a city of Bellevue roadway improvement project.

The other traffic impact is connected to construction of the new Renton School District middle school at the corner of Newcastle Way and 116th Avenue Southeast.

Expect delays as street improvements take place in conjunction with the school’s construction. Lane closures aren’t expected, but lanes will be shifted and flaggers will be on site to direct traffic.

Work is expected to begin on Newcastle Way as early as the third week of June and expected to be completed by Aug. 31.

The City Council unanimously voted to award the contract to the firm, which presented the cheapest bid to the city for the project.

The firm will complete the work for $173,400. The city’s contract engineer estimated the cost of the project to be $310,000. Construction will start later this spring or this summer, interim Public Works Director Steve Roberge said. The project will take less than two months to complete.

The City Council reviewed three design concepts for the project in August 2010, and it chose an option that calls for concrete sidewalks, curbs, gutters, driveway ramps and pedestrian ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The design also calls for enhancements to storm water drainage, minor landscape improvements, retaining walls and a 12- to 15-foot driving lane. It will not have a bike lane, but the wide driving lanes — one to four feet wider than most — will give some room to bikers.

The council also considered cheaper and more expensive design options.

Sidewalks are also to be built on 116th Avenue Southeast from Southeast 80th Street to Southeast 84th Street. The council has not yet approved the sidewalk design for that stretch of road.

I am writing to announce that after 17 years of community service, I will not be running for re-election to the Newcastle City Council.

I am proud of how far our community has come. When we struggled to incorporate the city of Newcastle, the then-Chair of the King County Council echoed Gertrude Stein’s opinion of Oakland, saying “There is no there there.”

Since incorporation in 1994, we encouraged the location of the prominent Golf Club at Newcastle on the site of an old landfill. We provided incentives for the location of a full-service YMCA — now overflowing with active users — and an 11,000-square-foot King County library, now under construction.

We encouraged the funding and construction of two new elementary schools in the city. We leveraged Newcastle’s small capital resources over this period to construct major street, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, like the $55 million Coal Creek Parkway project and the $4 million Newcastle Transit Center.

All these amenities have attracted a highly diverse population of new residents and the construction of a large number of new, high-valued homes. Since incorporation, our population has grown by almost 50 percent to its current 10,300 residents.

Newcastle is now “on the map.” It has become a highly desirable place to live, all the while maintaining the green canopy of parks and open spaces that characterize our community. Newcastle residents feel a sense of place, a sense of belonging to a real community of neighbors. Now, when we tell people that we live in Newcastle, they often respond “Oh, you live in Newcastle,” with eyebrows raised in admiration.

I hope the future leaders of our community will safeguard this legacy and sustain our community’s vision into the future.

Sonny Putter

Newcastle City Council

Wanted: vision and leadership

I am surprised at the lack of reporting on the City Council’s efforts to dismantle Newcastle’s downtown plan.

The current downtown plan calls for a pedestrian-friendly, multistory, mixed-use town center along the lines of what Mercer Island and many other cities are doing. But the council is pushing changes to the downtown zoning code that would invite single-story, strip-mall uses, like those along Sunset Boulevard.

If the council adopts these changes, you will soon see a Walgreens with a drive-through on the fruit stand corner. Other similar uses will likely follow.

The council says these uses are needed to increase city revenues. But this defies common sense. Fiscal analyses prepared when the downtown zoning code was first adopted showed that multistory, mixed-use development would provide significantly greater revenues than single-story, strip-mall development.

Construction sales tax revenues would increase due to greater expenditures on construction materials. Property tax revenues would increase due to the much higher assessed value of multistory buildings.

In addition, with specialty restaurants and shops on the ground floor and office or residential uses above, there would be more downtown workers and residents to patronize businesses. Therefore, sales tax revenues would increase over the long term as well.

As the economy improves, commercial development is starting again in cities around us. With vision and leadership on the part of the council, Newcastle could attract high-quality developers to create a vibrant, financially sustainable downtown.

Our current downtown plan and zoning code won the Governor’s Smart Growth Award. It is still the smart way to grow.

I ask all of you who have pride in our city to speak out at a council meeting, or write or email your councilmembers. Ask them to stop opening the door to Walgreens and other strip-mall uses. We deserve better.

Jean Garber

Newcastle

The Lake Boren Park playground closed March 14 for construction. Most of the playground will be removed to make way for new equipment, and construction is expected to continue through June 30.

The new playground is slated to expand to the north and east, and include two separate play areas: one for children 2-5 years old and another for children older than 5. The design calls for a concrete pathway to separate the play areas, and for the current swings — which are in good condition — to not be removed or replaced.

The design also calls for the backless, concrete seating areas to be replaced with benches, and for picnic tables to be placed along with benches and a sandbox in a concrete plaza in the southeast corner of the playground.

The floor of the playground itself will contain cedar chips.

The playground will be funded by a $325,000 grant from the state.

The city will hold an open house Nov. 22 for residents to view the proposed sidewalk designs for 116th Avenue Southeast from Southeast 88th to Southeast 84th streets.

The open house will be from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in Hazelwood Elementary School’s gym, 7100 116th Ave. S.E.

The City Council reviewed three design concepts for the project in August, and chose an option that calls for concrete sidewalks, curbs, gutters, driveway ramps and pedestrian ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The design also calls for enhancements to storm water drainage, minor landscape improvements, retaining walls and a 12- to 15-foot driving lane. It will not have a bike lane, but the wide driving lanes — one to four feet wider than most — will give some room to bikers.

The council also considered cheaper and more expensive design options.

The projects for the year listed five priority projects, as well as three additional projects in case funding was available.

The council made its decision following a recommendation from city staff to push the projects back because bids for the work were substantially more expensive than had been anticipated.

The city had $426,500 available for the work, but the lower of the two bids the city received was for $470,780.

Contract engineer Roger Kuykendall said the high bids can be attributed to the time of year. He said most construction companies have filled up their workloads for the year, and without needing the additional business, the companies are free to increase their bids and try to make a profit on additional work.

City Manager Rob Wyman said the city put the pavement overlay projects out to bid late this year because of former Public Work Director Maiya Andrews’ resignation in February.

“We were putting out fires all through that period of time,” Wyman said.

The city’s plan is to combine the 2010 and 2011 pavement overlay projects, and put them out to bid early next year, before construction companies fill up their schedules. By combining the projects, the city’s pavement overlay budget for 2011 will likely be more than $1 million.

The risks in postponing pavement overlay projects are further deterioration of roads and a possible increase in oil prices that could increase asphalt prices, making projects more expensive.

Wyman said the only road nearing poor quality that was scheduled to be rebuilt this year was 135th Avenue Southeast, from Southeast 85th Street to 136th Avenue Southeast.

However, Wyman said that city staff carefully examined the road and found that it would be fine waiting a few extra months before being rebuilt. He added that if city officials chose to rebuild the road now, crews would not be able to start work for about a month, and foul weather could substantially interfere with the quality of construction.

In exploring possible rising oil prices, Wyman said staff consulted numerous firms and found that bidding earlier in the year would offset any rises in oil price.

In addition to 135th Avenue Southeast, the city planned to repair four other roads this year.

The additional roads to be repaired were 120th Place Southeast, from Southeast 76th Street to Southeast 78th Street; Southeast 75th Place and 118th Avenue Southeast, from 119th Place to Southeast 77th Place; Southeast 84th Way, 129th Place Southeast and Southeast 86th Place, from the entrance of Lake Boren Park to 129th Avenue Southeast; and Newcastle Way, from 132nd Place Southeast to Newcastle Golf Club Road.

The three additional roads to be repaired if funding permitted were 121st Avenue Southeast, from Southeast 75 Place to the end of the nearby cul-de-sac; Southeast 76th Street, from 120th Place Southeast to the end of the nearby cul-de-sac; and Newcastle Golf Club Road, from Newcastle Way to the curve near the Coal Creek YMCA.