Two Othello roundabouts scheduled for 2025 construction

OTHELLO — While the timelines haven’t been determined yet, two new roundabouts are planned for spring and summer 2025 around Othello. One on State Route 17 will impact travelers who may ordinarily bypass the city.

A roundabout at the intersection of SR 17 and Cunningham Road – Main Street where it runs through Othello – originally was planned for construction this year but was pushed back to 2025. Sebastian Moraga, North Central region communications officer for the Washington Department of Transportation, said a second project is planned for the intersection of State Route 26 and South First Avenue.  

Ellen Guisfredi, WSDOT assistant project engineer for the SR 26 roundabout, told Othello City Council members Monday that DOT engineers evaluated several intersections along SR 26, and South First Avenue was one that officials decided needed some work. 

“The alternative that was selected to improve visibility and safety was to a roundabout,” Guisfredi said. 

The total project cost is about $3.8 million, she said. Construction should take about 55 working days, which she said would equal about three months.  

“Best case scenario, we’re looking at early June to construct. But that’s up in the air right now,” she said.  

Drivers should be prepared for delays while construction is underway. 

“The majority of (traffic control) will be alternating one-lane traffic with temporary signals on State Route 26,” Guisfredi said. “We won’t be detouring highway traffic, but we will be detouring traffic that is on city and county roads. So any traffic attempting to enter 26 at this intersection will be directed to use detour (routes).”  

It will be what Guisfredi called a compact roundabout, with lower curbs and without the mound of rocks in the center. 

“It will have a fully mountable truck apron as a lot of heavy traffic and very large trucks come through this intersection,” she said. “It is designed for larger vehicles because of the large truck movement coming through the area.” 

SR 26 is one lane in each direction and the roundabout also will be one lane. 

Once it’s finished drivers will be able to cross SR 26 from South First Avenue to State Route 24 (South Broadway Avenue in Othello), which currently requires a detour via Columbia Street. Vehicles will be able to turn left at that intersection from SR 26 to SR 24, which isn’t allowed there now. 

Funding influenced the choice of improvements at South First Avenue, Guisfredi said. 

“I know we’ve had questions about, why not Reynolds Road and State Route 26, which a lot of folks in the community prefer to go first,” she said. “This was the one that was funded first. It came out of a different funding package, as it is a compact roundabout and does not require right of way to build.” 

Reynolds Road is South 14th Avenue where it runs through Othello and is the location of the Columbia Basin Health Association clinic and two elementary schools. There’s been an increase in traffic at the intersection as a result.

Jacob Cunnington, design lead for the SR 17 project, said it’s a different design than SR 26. 

Total project cost is about $7.1 million. Construction is projected to take about 59 working days, which also works out to about three months, Cunnington said. It’s one lane in each direction. It will be bigger than the SR 26 project, will have higher curbs and the mound of rocks in the center. 

“There will be quarry spoils in the middle,” he said. “So large, loose, heavy rock, along with some signage on the center island.”  

Crews will be doing pavement repair at the beginning of the project, which will require flaggers, he said. Once construction starts traffic will be controlled by a temporary signal at the intersection.  

“During this stage we’ll close off access to Cunningham Road on either side of SR 17, while access through SR 17 north and south will be single lane,” Cunnington said. “At the end there will be another five days or so where the roundabout is open but not striped, and we’ll do that striping at night.” 

The goal, he said, is to finish one project before the other one starts or reduce the overlap between the projects. Cunnington said construction dates are still to be determined. Construction is scheduled for SR 17 before SR 26, he said.  

“Right now, it’s pretty up in the air – no firm dates on anything,” he said. 

Department of Transportation officials are working on scheduling to ensure the project overlap is as short as possible, Guisfredi said. 

“We included some early incentives for the contractor completing the work to avoid that overlap,” she said. “We’ll see what happens with the timeline on these. If it ends up that our (completion) date gets pushed out far enough into the summer, we might build them in different years. But at this point, ideally, we’ll be building them in 2025, our detour routes will not overlap, and the majority of our work will not overlap timewise.”  

    Originally scheduled for 2024, a roundabout will be built at Cunningham Road and State Route 17 in 2025.
  

    A semi exits State Route 26 for State Route 24 at South First Avenue in Othello. A roundabout is scheduled for construction at the intersection in 2025.