County turns in transportation improvement program

71 projects on planning list

EPHRATA — There's a lot of road in Grant County.

"We have the largest road system in the state, mile-wise, per county," said county road engineer and Public Works Director Derek Pohle, noting there are about 2,535 miles. "That would stretch from here to New Orleans. That's a lot of road."

The county also has over 200 bridges to maintain.

"Big system," Pohle said succinctly, adding that of those 2,535 miles, about 1,000 roads are still gravel.

In late July, the county submitted its six-year comprehensive transportation improvement program, for the years 2007 through 2012. The program is the result of a federal requirement of any agencies using federal transportation funding.

"It's primarily a planning tool, it's a priority programming tool," Pohle said. Several agencies require such planning in order to apply for grant funding and for good county standards and practices. The plan must be practical and fiscally constrained, which means an agency is able to perform the work if revenue streams are available and grant applications are approved.

Projects in Grant County tend to range from roughly $5.5 million to more than $7 million a year, which typically means about 12 projects for the county per year, Pohle noted.

Seventy-one construction projects of varying degrees were recently submitted by the county as part of their six-year plan. The county and other agencies are required to update their programs annually.

But residents shouldn't necessarily expect all 71 projects to reach the final stages. While the six-year program is primarily a planning tool, sometimes those projects in the program don't translate well to the county's annual construction program for a variety of factors.

"You did or didn't get funding for a project, some permitting issue has got you stalled, or something like that, and you're going to have to wait," Pohle explained. "The first year or second year are generally the categories by which we develop our annual programming, and it just depends on how things are going … This is the planning tool, and 99 percent of the projects that go on the annual come from here."

Projects included in the county's six-year program include bridge rehabilitations, minor and major collector improvements and upgrades, such safety projects as guardrail upgrades, and the county is working to rehabilitate the Crescent Bar Bridge this winter. The county's all-weather system, complementary to the state's highway system, is beginning to reach a point where it needs overlays, Pohle said.

Other projects include a Transportation Improvement Board economic grant for construction at Road N NE in response to the $600 million expansion of REC Silicon and Guardian Fiberglass, which is still in the permitting process as it considers the Moses Lake area.

Pohle also pointed to the county's gravel to oil cost-share program, in which the county will match funds with a resident who wants a gravel road to be paved, but lives in an area that would never rank well in terms of priority.

Pohle said he would like to see more public participation in the open process, but allowed that the road system is not something people necessarily think about until they become inconvenienced.