Grant County Road C ends with waterways

New pipe arches increase crossing's capacity

COLUMBIA BASIN - Travelers up and down Road C Southeast won't get very far.

About a mile and a half north of state Route 262, the road suddenly stops and water flows between one part of Road C and another.

Construction crews from the Yakima office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation have been working since early February on the spot, said bureau Special Projects Officer Jim Blanchard.

"We're replacing the existing crossing with a crossing that has more capacity (for water)," Blanchard explained.

The area under construction is the Frenchman Hills Wasteway, one of the areas identified as a supplemental feed route to put water into Potholes Reservoir from Grand Coulee Dam.

"This particular crossing was pretty much at its maximum capacity just handling regular flows during the summer," Blanchard said. "We really needed it to be able to handle three times that amount of flow, so we pulled out eight culverts and replaced them with five pipe arches, which are a large culvert."

The road is closed until completed, but Blanchard said concrete began being placed Tuesday. The bureau starts water into the canals next week, and water will probably begin flowing into the area by April 1, he said.

Project foreman John McCoy said the project is on schedule.

"We're not behind, but we're not really ahead, either," he said. "We've still got quite a bit to do."

Such work is not really common, but it's becoming more common for the work crew, McCoy said, pointing at several other bureau projects.

"This one here is probably the biggest one that I have been the foreman on," he said. "But you, know, I've had good guys."

Up to six people have been working on the job at a time, McCoy said.

"This is the first of the projects on the feed routes," Blanchard said. "That and some land acquisition activities along here will actually make this route functional. We hope to be able to fully use it in the next few years."

It will take longer to get Crab Creek turned into a supplemental feed route, Blanchard added.

The bureau received $983,000 from the budget this year as a write-in, he noted.

"There are a bunch of design activities that are taking place," he said. "There are some land acquisition activities taking place on that, also."

Funding provided as a write-in is outside the normal budgeting process where President George W. Bush puts together a budget, Blanchard said.

"They call them write-ins or earmarks," he said. "Reclamation did not ask for that money, some local folks approached, I'm pretty sure it was Sen. Cantwell and Rep. Hastings, and they're the ones who put it into the budget bill. It would not be in a president's budget for several more years because of the way things work for budget."

The construction allows the bureau to begin having more reliability in getting water to Potholes Reservoir, to serve the southern part of the Columbia Basin Project, Blanchard said.

Blanchard and McCoy said members of the public are welcome to come and look at the project, but McCoy said he would prefer they wait until after the project is finished March 19 for their general safety and the safety of his workers.