Hot on the heels of last month's victory for the deep-bore tunnel, tunnel project manager Ron Paananen is leaving the state Department of Transportation to join "a private engineering firm in Washington, DC," to work on "large projects on the East Coast," WSDOT spokeswoman Amy Grotefendt confirms. Paananen sent an email to WSDOT employees today.

"He's not ready to say" what company he will work for, Grotefendt says. Linnea Laird, a 25-year WSDOT veteran who managed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge project before joining the viaduct replacement project team, will be Paananen's replacement.