Chip-sealing scheduled for SR 26 next week

OTHELLO — Drivers on State Route 26 between Othello and Vantage should be ready for occasional delays starting Monday through Aug. 22 as construction crews work on pavement repair.  

“Travelers will encounter pilot cars and flagger-controlled traffic while contractors perform chip sealing work during daylight hours,” wrote Sebastian Moraga, communications officer for the Washington Department of Transportation.  

Two sections of SR 26 will be resurfaced with chip seal, which covers an existing pavement with a new layer of rocks and oil.  

“One stretch goes from milepost 43, just east of Othello, to milepost 61, northeast of Hatton,” Moraga wrote. “(The second road section) is from the Interstate 90 junction near Vantage, milepost 0, to Royal City, milepost 31.” 

Work from Othello to Hatton is scheduled for Aug. 12 to 14, and from Aug. 14 through 22 on the section from Vantage to Royal City. Once the chip-sealing is complete, crews will be working on striping and “roadway delineation” through late summer, Moraga wrote.  

Other road projects are winding down. A project to stabilize the rock slope on State Route 17 near Soap Lake is scheduled for completion Aug. 31.  

Crews have been working on the embankment since February, removing loose rocks and bolting rocks that could break loose to more stable rocks behind them. Crews have finished installing the steel netting to keep rocks that do break loose from landing in the roadway. 

“We are working through a guardrail repair that may occur in September but otherwise (the project) would be done,” wrote Eric Backstrum, DOT engineer, in response to a question from the Columbia Basin Herald.  

In the meantime, traffic restrictions will remain in effect through the work zone from the Soap Lake city limits to the Lake Lenore Caves.  

Traffic is subject to 20-minute delays through the project zone. Drivers are stopped for 20 minutes, traffic is let through in one direction, then the other direction, then traffic is stopped for 20 minutes. Loads more than 12 feet wide are prohibited in the construction zone during work hours. There are no traffic restrictions before and after work hours. 

West Main Avenue in Soap Lake is closed from South Ginkgo to South Cherry streets; crews have been removing pavement preparatory repaving that section and adding sidewalks on the north side of the road. Sidewalks are being poured along Marina Way in Soap Lake and a section of First Avenue Northeast, with paving scheduled for both roads.  

Marina Way is north of East Main Avenue and dead ends in a parking lot next to East Beach Park. That stretch will be paved, along with First Avenue Northeast from the Marina Way intersection to North Daisy Street (SR 17). 

Work continues on the Vantage Bridge, with traffic restricted to one lane in each direction and a speed limit of 40 miles per hour through the work zone Monday through Friday. There’s also a 10-foot width restriction.  

Both lanes of the bridge are open weekends through Labor Day, but after that one lane will be closed seven days per week through the end of the construction season in late October. Crews are replacing the bridge deck, a project that’s expected to continue through 2027. 

    Construction is scheduled to be complete by Aug. 31 on a section of State Rote 17 north of Soap Lake, pictured.