Highway 17 moving forward

First construction slated for mid-September

MOSES LAKE — Construction to widen a section of Grant County's major north-south thoroughfare should start next month, but authorities say work probably won't have an impact on traffic until next spring.

A contract for the 3-mile stretch of Highway 17 was awarded to a Moses Lake firm earlier this month, and the Washington State Department of Transportation expects the widening to start by mid-September.

The project will expand the last segment of Highway 17 between Interstate 90 to the Port of Moses Lake from two to four lanes adding median barriers and a mile-long noise wall to separate the roadway from an adjacent residential neighborhood.

The department of transportation awarded a contract for the project earlier this month to Central Washington Asphalt of Moses Lake in the amount of $14.6 million.

Department of Transpor-tation project engineer Bob Romine expected this year's work to have little impact on motorists on the roadway, adding construction will initially take place off the current roadway before contractors get into full swing next spring. The complete widening is expected to be complete by the fall of 2007.

The project is being designed to improve safety by reducing crossover accidents on the highway, while also increasing the number of cars which go through project intersections per hour. According to department of transportation computer modeling estimates, average afternoon travel on the roadway would stall to 15 mph by 2020 if no improvements made. The widening increases those speeds to 39 mph in 2020, from the current average afternoon travel speed of 30 mph.

"It eliminates a major bottleneck in this area by building this project," Romine said.

The project will cross three major intersections in Moses Lake, as well as a railroad crossing near Stratford Road, according to the department of transportation. A new bridge will also be constructed across Parker Horn of Moses Lake. The department of transportation said expanding this segment of Highway 17 was recommended in a 1997 study.

Construction for the project was originally priced at $13 million, allocated from the Legislature's 2005 transportation tax increase. An additional $2.5 million was secured in June of this year after skyrocketing asphalt and construction prices pushed the total cost up to approximately $15.5 million, jeopardizing the 3-mile widening and forcing highway officials to consider reduced project alternatives. The additional $2.5 million was secured from the state office of financial management.

"The whole project in its entirety will be built now," Romine said.

State Sen. Joyce Mulliken helped secure additional funding from the state. The Moses Lake Republican said that because the widening was labeled "project ready." the state office of financial management was able to transfer discretionary funds from other highway projects still months or years away from construction.

"I'm very excited," Mulliken said about the project. She said the fact that a local construction company was awarded the contract was the icing on the cake.

Mulliken is leaving the Legislature to take a position with the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board, but said she is very interested in seeing the project through to fruition, and plans to work with future 13th district legislators on the project.

"It can only benefit the people in Grant County, because that is a major north-south corridor," she said.

Mulliken said the department of transportation is working on a study which would expand future sections north to Ephrata, and said the entire highway has been identified as a safety concern. She added the widening is becoming more and more important as a growing population continues to use the highway to get to work and school.

"As long as houses are being built, more and more people are going to travel that highway," Mulliken said.

Mulliken is one of many who see the 3-mile project as the first step in a process which will eventually widen Highway 17 from Highway 395 north to Ephrata.

"It's also part of a bigger project which we think is extremely important," said Albert Anderson, referring to the future widening of the highway from Mesa to Ephrata.

Anderson, the industrial development manager at the Port of Moses Lake, said the project gives the opportunity for industry to get their goods to the port's industrial park from I-90 via a four-lane route. That widening gives industrial transports direct access, which Anderson said is a big draw to industrial companies looking at the port.

Anderson said the Highway 17 project, alongside rail projects, and road projects looking to loop Moses Lake with a bridge on its west side, have been deemed important for future industry at the port.

The widening, he said, allows "better transportation for those industries that are here now, and those that are coming in the future."