Yonezawa Boulevard to be extended
The intersection of Yonezawa Boulevard and Pioneer Way will get some major revisions this summer as Yonezawa Boulevard is extended.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald
Cars wait for the light at the intersection of Yonezawa Boulevard and Pioneer Way. The intersection will get major revisions this summer as Yonezawa Boulevard is connected with the access road to the new Vicki Groff Elementary.
Cars go through the intersection at Pioneer Way and Yonezawa Boulevard. Yonezawa Boulevard will be extended during the summer.
MOSES LAKE — Revisions are planned at the intersection of Yonezawa Boulevard and Pioneer Way (state Route 17), which will extend Yonezawa Boulevard to an access road and the new Vicki Groff Elementary School.
The access road to Groff Elementary, named Moses Lake Avenue, will extend from East Nelson Road to the Yonezawa Boulevard extension. It will have one lane in each direction.
The Yonezawa extension will be just like the existing road on the west side of Pioneer Way, with two lanes in each direction, a left turn lane and what Moses Lake city engineer Richard Law called “center islands.” Those are the landscaped sections dividing the east-west traffic lanes.
Law said the Yonezawa Boulevard project will delay a plan to resurface Valley Road. The Valley Road project previously was planned for this year.
Law said the cost of the project hasn’t been determined.
“A very early estimate” is the project “will probably be in the realm of $1.5 million,” Law said.
Currently, city officials are working on the construction documents, he said, and hope to advertise the project for bid in late January or February.
There’s no start date yet.
“We are planning on completing it during the 2021 construction season,” Law said.
Groff Elementary is scheduled to open in fall 2021.
Currently, traffic at the Yonezawa-Pioneer intersection is managed with traffic lights. City officials don’t plan to change that.
Because Pioneer Way is also state Route 17, it’s managed by the Washington Department of Transportation, and the DOT will have to approve the city’s plan to keep the stoplight.
“That’s the proposal in front of them,” Law said.
The Yonezawa extension will end at Moses Lake Avenue, Law said. City officials don’t have any current plans to extend it further. Whether it’s extended in the future will depend on development of the land in that area, Law said.
The Valley Road project, when it happens, will involve removing the existing asphalt, excavating and replacing the road bed, and repaving the street.
