Nat Washington Way to be repaired in spring
The City of Ephrata received a $200,000 grant to repair potholes and cracks in Nat Washington Way this spring. The road stretches in a curved route from the Rite Aid in downtown to State Route 282 near Walmart.
COURTESY PHOTO/GOOGLE EARTH
EPHRATA — The city of Ephrata has received a $200,000 grant from the Grant County Strategic Infrastructure Program Advisory Committee at the Grant County Board of Commissioners to repair Nat Washington Way.
The grant will allow for the cracks and potholes on the road to be filled and repaired in the spring of 2025. The grant will fund patching areas that have settled, creating potholes, filling cracks in the road and sealing the road with a chip seal which is gravel and oil that expands the life of the road by about 10 years, according to Ephrata City Administrator Ray Towry.
“It was good news,” Towry said. “As a community, we've kind of just not had the ability to do a lot of street work, and so anytime we can get a grant to help us with that it just takes a burden off the taxpayer and allows us to get work done. That's what we want to do. We want to get work done. That’s why we're here.”
Towry estimates the project beginning next spring, however he does not have start or end dates yet because the grant approval is so new. He also does not know who the contractor on the project will be, yet.
“This kind of work is limited in season, because the asphalt plants only operate seasonally,” Towry said. “They don't run in the cold weather. So given that we're essentially into September, I don't think there's any way we can get the project out, set and organized before the asphalt plan shuts down. Therefore, we are going to start sometime in the spring.”