Yelm Loop project to go to bid process on March 16

The decades-in-the-making Yelm Loop project is crossing off a key objective prior to construction by officially going out to bid on Monday, March 16, as announced by Yelm Public Services Director, Cody Colt, during a Yelm City Council study session on Tuesday, March 3.

“The last little hangup is a right-of-way acquisition from a property owner,” Colt specified. “Everything else is done. The properties are purchased. Everything else is good to go. After the bid, we expect it to be open for about a month. It’ll go until about the middle of April.”

Colt added that the City of Yelm will accept the lowest qualified bid for the project. He expects construction to begin this summer.
Specifically, Colt said the first chunk of construction for the Yelm Loop project will take place near Walmart — down Walmart Boulevard all the way to 103rd Street Southeast. This portion of the Yelm Loop project, Colt said, should take six months up to a year to complete.

In total, this portion of the Yelm Loop project will include two roundabouts — one at the intersection of Walmart Boulevard and State Route 507, and the second at the intersection of Walmart Boulevard and 103rd Street Southeast — along with an upgraded road and new sidewalks.

“That does include a sidewalk that will go along where Longshot is,” Colt said. “There will be a sidewalk there, and that includes a stub out there for the City of Yelm to the south, which will eventually connect the Yelm Loop and Walmart Boulevard to Bald Hill Road.”

The entirety of the Yelm Loop project itself is expected to take two-to-three years. Colt expects it to be completed in the 2028-2029 range.

“Again, this is the state so we don’t have control over what they do,” Colt said. “These are the things that they told us during our last meeting four days ago.”

Mayor Joe DePinto approached the bid process with a sense of enthusiasm — noting this is the furthest along the City of Yelm has ever gone with the Yelm Loop project.

“They’ve actually given us a date, which it seems like it’s improving,” DePinto said. “We’re heading in the right direction.”

Colt also provided additional clarification on the final “hang up” in the right-of-way acquisition process.

“They’re gonna have to probably do condonation over that person,” he said. “It’s not because the person doesn’t want to. It’s because there’s an issue with the owner and they might’ve passed away and they can’t get in touch with them. They have to go through this process in order to get the property.”

He added that it’s a legal way of acquiring property, not because the property owner doesn’t want to give up the land, but rather because they cannot be contacted as they’ve possibly moved or are deceased.

Councilor Griselda Arias asked Colt for clarification on the state of Washington’s responsibilities with the Yelm Loop project.

“It’s all state led. The two highways running through town are state highways. This is the state that does it,” Colt said. “We will work in conjunction with them and traffic control. They have to go through us when they block off certain roads that are city roads like 103rd, Grove Road.”

Councilor Joseph Richardson questioned the optimistic timeline of a 2028-2029 completion, to which Colt doubled down on.

“2028 will be the completion. It’s a two-year timeline,” Colt said.

DePinto, who met with Rep. Andrew Barkis several weeks ago, reiterated Colt’s optimism.

“Meeting with (Andrew) Barkis last week, he said the same thing,” DePinto said. “There’s no funny business with money or anything being taken away by the state. It’s fully funded. It’s happening.”

Richardson then asked Colt and DePinto what the City of Yelm should do when the Yelm Loop project isn’t completed by 2028.

“There’s a lot of skepticism here,” Richardson said.

Colt replied and asked if the project can begin first before questions like that are answered.

“Let’s just get it started first,” Colt said. “I’ve lived here as much as you, so I understand what we all expect. We’ve never got to this part where they’ve gone to bid. We’ve done things the last three years that we’ve never done before. We moved utilities. We purchased right-of-way. These are things that haven’t been done before.”

DePinto reiterated to the Yelm City Council that land acquisition was one of the final steps needed to be taken before the project could go out to bid. He said the City of Yelm has been working to conclude that process for roughly the last year and a half.

“I hope they do build it by 2028. We’ll see,” DePinto said. “We’re going to push on it. Cody and his team, I will be at the leg. We will do as best we can to make sure they follow along with what they say they’re going to get done.”

While the mayor knows the entirety of the Yelm Loop project won’t be completed next year, he noted that the new roundabouts being introduced into the city near Walmart should be. He expects that portion of the loop to move fast.

“We’ll see, hopefully, a better impact on traffic with that roundabout,” DePinto said.