May 15—C-Tran is making headway on a bus rapid transit line to run along Highway 99 from Vancouver’s waterfront to Washington State University Vancouver.
The Vine on Highway 99 will join bus rapid transit lines on Fourth Plain Boulevard, which opened in 2017, and on Mill Plain Boulevard, which opened in 2023. Both current Vine lines start at Turtle Place in downtown Vancouver with the Mill Plain route ending at the Columbia Tech Center and the Fourth Plain line ending at Vancouver Mall.
Planning, design and engineering for The Vine on Highway 99 is nearing 60 percent completion.
On Tuesday, the C- Tran Board of Directors awarded a construction management contract to Wenaha Group, to provide guidance and oversight for the project.
The construction management contract is separated into three parts: preconstruction, construction and project closeout.
“The preconstruction activities include taking a very close look at that 60 percent,” said C-Tran’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Scott Patterson. “The goal is to give the current design a fresh set of eyes, and also looking at it from a construction point of view. During construction, they will play a very active role in terms of interacting with the C-Tran team internally and the contractor that will ultimately get selected to build our third bus rapid transit corridor.”
The design stage of the project will be completed later this year. Construction is slated to begin early in 2025, Patterson said.
Construction will take roughly two years to complete, according to Patterson. “We’re hoping to shave that down a little bit.”
The total cost for the construction management aspect of the project will not exceed $3,461,450, including a 7 percent contingency, according to a staff report.
The 10-mile project is estimated to cost roughly $52 million total.
The Vine boasts larger buses and level-boarding platforms, maximized connections and seamless fare payments to create a faster and more efficient travel.
The line will start at Grant Street and West Columbia Way with more than a dozen stops before reaching WSUV.
To learn more about the project, visit www.catchthevine.com/highway99.
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