White Trail Road roundabout on tap: Traffic circle construction will affect major route in region
The planned roundabout at White Trail Road and state Route 28, shown here, will have one lane in each direction. North is to the upper right.
Washington State Department of Transportation/Courtesy image
QUINCY — Construction is scheduled to begin in late summer or early fall 2022 on a new one-lane roundabout at White Trail Road/Road U Northwest and state Route 28, about four miles west of Quincy.
James Reynolds, engineer with the North Central Region of the Washington State Department of Transportation, said White Trail Road would be closed except for local traffic throughout most of the project.
The roundabout will be one lane in each direction. While it’s still in the design phase, he said the finished project probably will resemble the roundabout on West Bench Road and state Route 24 about a mile south of Othello.
“As far as roundabouts, it’s pretty typical of what you might see in this region,” Reynolds said.
The total project cost will be about $2.5 million, he said. Construction will take about 40 to 50 days, about two and a half months.
The project should be advertised for bid in the spring, he said, with construction tentatively scheduled to begin by August or September. But the availability of materials may affect the timeline, he said, and it could be postponed to spring 2023 if construction is delayed too long.
State Route 28 is the major route to and from Wenatchee, and an option to access Interstate 90 from the north. State Route 28 goes through Quincy, and White Trail Road has become a popular route to bypass the town.
Options to detour around the construction zone are limited.
“There are no good detours,” Reynolds said.
As a result, the construction zone will probably be a single lane of traffic, controlled by flaggers 24 hours a day. Access to White Trail Road will be restricted.
“For a good portion of the project, White Trail Road is going to be closed off,” he said. “People will have to go through Quincy to get to I-90.”
The project’s goal is reducing the possibility of serious injury and fatal collisions at the intersection, and Reynolds said the roundabout should do that.
“We see reductions of up to 80% of severe and fatal collisions (at roundabouts),” he said. “Extreme benefits for safety.”
Drivers must slow down at a roundabout, and the road is curved, and drivers don’t run into each other at right angles, Reynolds said.