State transportation worker from North Bend killed near Carnation by falling tree
January 17, 2011
Billy “Bud” Rhynalds loved his job and loved helping people. He was doing both on State Route 203 south of Carnation at about 9 p.m. Sunday when a falling tree killed the Washington State Department of Transportation worker.
Rhynalds, a member of WSDOT’s road maintenance crew based in Preston, had been called out to help close roads due to flooding in Snoqualmie Valley. The 12-year veteran of the department had gone to set up traffic cones to keep drivers away from downed power lines when a cottonwood fell and hit him in his truck.
“I am so proud of him, because all he ever wanted to do was help other people,” his sister, Candi Smith said. “That’s what he was out doing last night.”
WSDOT picks another poster winner from North Bend Elementary School
June 16, 2010
Maybe it’s in the water, or it could be in the colored pencils, but for the second year in a row, a North Bend Elementary School student has won a statewide poster and essay contest sponsored by the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Every year for the past six years, the contest has honored two students — one west of the Cascade Mountains and the other east. The westside winner, fifth-grader Cassidy Rudd, will have her poster displayed on a billboard in downtown Seattle on Dearborn Street starting July 12 for at least one month.
Fifth-grader Cassidy Rudd holds a framed copy of her drawing of a wildlife bridge over Interstate 90 with Amanda Sullivan of WSDOT I-90 communications. Photo by Laura Geggel
The eastside winner, Taylor Moulton, of Moutainview Elementary School in Yakima, will have her art featured on a billboard in Ellensburg.
At a surprise assembly for the fifth grade June 11, the department told students about its I-90 project. The department is working with the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition to build pathways for wildlife above or below the interstate. These pathways should provide animals safe passage around the interstate, so they don’t have to cross it and harm themselves and drivers, said Jenn Watkins, with the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition. Read more
Washington State Department of Transportation starts work on I-90 project
April 15, 2010
NEW — 10:00 a.m. April 15, 2010
Work to improve travel for high-occupancy vehicles on Interstate 90 has started, which will mean some lane closures at night until the project is finished.
