“The Classic Road phone booth of Whidbey Telephone Co. was in the southeast corner of the intersection with Highway 525 for many years. Last fall, however, it was removed as part of a highway widening project.Jon Jensen / staff photosThe Classic Road phone booth will be back, but slightly up the highway from its classic location.That Whidbey Telephone Co. phone booth has been a South Whidbey landmark at the intersection of Highway 525 and Classic Road for many years. It was the unofficial northern boundary of South Whidbey and marked the north edge of the phone company’s service area.Whidbey Telephone has expanded its service to Greenbank, but the Classic Road phone booth has remained a vital communciations link in a part of the island where cell phones often have trouble making and keeping connections. The new location will be north of Classic Road toward Resort Road, close to the Island Transit bus stop on the east side of the highway.The phone booth was removed last fall as part of the widening of 1.4 miles of Highway 525 in that area.Marlin Lenssen, the state Department of Transportation’s engineer for this job, said the $1.38 million project involves removing the old paving, regrading the roadbed, adding crushed rock and some of the pulverized old paving, then putting down a new asphalt road surface.He said the work will be done in two or three segments to limit traffic delays. That work is under way, and motorists can expect intermittent delays there on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.The work schedule is weather-dependent, Lenssen said, but the project should be completed sometime between late July and autumn. The contractor is Callen Construction Co. of Bellingham.Preliminary site work done last summer and fall involved removal of trees and other obstacles in the right-of-way, the addition of large amounts of dirt on the east side of the road, grading of slopes, and creation of runoff holding ponds.Lenssen said bids are expected to be opened and a contract awarded this summer or fall for similar widening on about 2.5 miles of Highway 525 near Ledgewood Beach and Teronda West. That work will take place from just north of Smugglers Cove Road to just south of Houston Road. “