No specific date for start of construction was immediately set, but Bothell City Council on March 2 awarded an $8.3 million contract for the renovation of Wayne Curve on Northeast Bothell Way, or State Route 522.

The city also handed out an additional $1.7 million in supplemental design and construction management work.

Capital program director for the Wayne Curve project, Rosalie Wu said work should start about a month from the date council took action, depending partly on how quickly main contractor Marshbank Construction Inc., can obtain city permits.

Phase one of the overall project targets the stretch of SR 522 from a bit east of the western city limits and then heading east past the 96th Avenue Northeast intersection, judging from information provided by Wu and listed on the Bothell Web site.

With work expected to take about a year and a half and finishing up in fall 2011, one obvious question is how the construction will impact traffic on what is easily one of this area’s busiest thoroughfares.

“During the day, we will always have two lanes of traffic open in each direction,” Wu said, noting that is the same number of open lanes presently available. At night, traffic may be reduced to one lane in each direction, with some shifting of lanes expected.

Wu also vowed access to businesses in the construction zone will be maintained at all times.

“We’ve actually talked to all the business owners that are there,” Wu said, noting their times of operation are noted in the construction contract.

Wu said one key goal of the work is to add a bus-only, right-turn lane — or a “transit queue jump-lane” — to both sides of SR 522 in the area of 96th Avenue.

Once the work is completed, buses heading to Seattle will never have to stop for a light at the intersection of Bothell Way and 96th. Buses coming into Bothell will need to stop, at least at first, but eventually plans call for a trip mechanism that will switch the color of the traffic light to allow buses to pass.

Wu said the city is acting partly in response to the notion of state officials to turn the 520 bridge into a toll road. When that happens, local leaders expect SR 522 will become an attractive, free alternate route around Lake Washington and in and out of Seattle. The hope is to eliminate any potential bottlenecks before the added traffic even arrives, as well as to encourage the use of mass transit by making buses move along more quickly than private vehicles.

Further construction plans call for widening 96th Avenue near its intersection with SR 522, adding an additional southbound lane and a second left-turn lane. New paving is in the works as are new curbs, sidewalks, landscaping and so on. Wu talked about burying utility wires in the area.

Work added to the original plans includes paving between roughly the Yakima Market and Hall Road, as well a Bothell “gateway” sign and some improvements to Red Brick Road Park.

According to the city Web site, a second stage of the project extends from both ends of the stage-one work. To the west, the work eventually will reach the city’s border while extending all the way to Northeast 180th Street in the other direction.

Plans call for much of the same type of work. Wu said completion depends on the availability of funding.

Once all phases are complete, Wu added there will be transit-only lanes along SR 522 all the way from Seattle into Bothell. The only exception will be about a half-mile strip of the roadway that is in kind of a no man’s land between the Bothell and Kenmore borders.

The stretch of roadway actually sits in a plot of unincorporated King County. Wu said the assumption is that either Bothell or Kenmore eventually will annex that area.

All in all, the city received nine bids for the major construction work on Wayne Curve.

According to information released by the city, Marshbank’s ultimately winning bid was well within the construction estimate of $11.9 million.