Pedestrian crossing coming to Broadway

Crosswalk scheduled for full operation within month

MOSES LAKE — Crossing Broadway Avenue is about to get a little easier.

Work is almost complete on a crosswalk and trail project across this high-traffic street, and area walkers see it as part of a grand plan to make Moses Lake a healthy and walkable community.

City Municipal Services Director Gary Harer said the Broadway Avenue crossing at Dogwood Street will serve as both an integral part of the city's adopted Trails Master Plan, and as a crossing for schoolchildren traveling to McCosh Park from other parts of town. Broadway Avenue's width, with five traffic and two parking lanes, Harer said, have made it a hard street to cross.

"There's just a lot of traffic on it, and it needs a safer crossing," Harer said. "We'll wait and see how this works."

In addition to the crosswalk, project crews began last fall installing basalt columns and lighting along a trail connector to the city's Neppel Park activity trail. Lighting issues have delayed the opening of the crosswalk, but Harer said the city plans to have the yellow flashing light intersection in working order by the end of January.

The Dogwood Court project is a pilot project for the city and the state Department of Transportation, as Broadway Avenue is also known as State Route 171.

"They will take a look at it and see if they want to put more intersections on their state highway system and we will do the same," Harer said.

While the project serves as a link in the city's trail plan, Harer added it also serves as a prelude to what will happen downtown with the redesign of Third Avenue and Sinkiuse Square. The city foresees those changes beginning in early summer.

But Sharon Taylor feels the yellow light at Dogwood Street doesn't go far enough. Taylor is the owner of Woody's Restaurant, a business directly adjacent to the crossing. Taylor has seen problems with the recently installed back-in parking on Dogwood Street, and questions the cost of putting in a crossing at a spot where no one traditionally crosses. Taylor said the yellow flashing light would be a good step for children, but said speed and other factors on Broadway Avenue are forcing pedestrians to use the red light crossing at nearby Division Street.

Brenda Teals, however, thinks the project is a great one. Teals is part of both the Trails Planning Team and Moses Lake Tourism Commission, and said the visually distinct curb bump outs and basalt columns will help slow traffic on Broadway Avenue.

"It's just so beautiful," she said. "I'm just so pleased that the city has helped the schools out."

Teals sees the crossing as a connector within the entire trails system, and as a connector for area kids who want to ride their bicycles to McCosh Park and the city's aquatic center. Eventually, Teals said she would like to see additional trails with the bike trail at Neppel Park expanded through Blue Heron Park and to the residential areas on the other side.

"This crossing would be an integral part of that," she said.