SR 17 repaving set for Moses Lake area
State Route 17 through Moses Lake will be repaved this summer, with work scheduled to start in April. The intersection of SR 17 and Kittleson Road is pictured. Travelers should expect delays in the area and may wish to avoid it while construction is being completed.
CHERYL SCHWEIZER/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
MOSES LAKE — Work is scheduled to start about April 1 on a project to repave a section of State Route 17 where it runs through Moses Lake.
Jeff Deal, project engineer for the Washington Department of Transportation, said the project area is about six miles, starting north of town near the intersection of SR 17 and Patton Boulevard and ending south of town at the intersection with Interstate 90.
Most of the work will be at night, he said, from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. with traffic controlled by flaggers. One lane will remain open throughout the project.
The work will start no earlier than April 1 if weather permits, Deal said, or as soon after that date as possible. It’s scheduled to continue through August.
“We’re not taking the ability to travel on (SR) 17. It’ll just be a little bit slower,” he said. “We’re going to maintain traffic on the route as much as we can.”
Paving crews will remove and replace the top two inches of the existing road surface, Deal said.
“We’ll grind down and pave it back,” he said. “The majority of the work is really simple.”
Crews will also repave the on and off ramps at the I-90 and Stratford Road intersections. There will be detours at those intersections while the work is underway.
Crews also will improve sidewalk access for people in wheelchairs or scooters, or with limited mobility, to better comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Deal said. But no new sidewalk will be built, he said.
Originally the project was scheduled for 2023, but it was pushed back a year because the DOT had a lot to do in Central Washington last year.
“We had so much work happening at one time,” Deal said.
Delaying the project to 2024 allowed it to start earlier in the year, he said, and allows more efficient use of resources.
The Moses Lake repaving is one of two major projects along SR 17 in 2024. The other begins in February just north of Soap Lake to the Lake Lenore Caves. Sections of the road run along the base of a rock cliff, and crews will be stabilizing the rock face. That will involve removing some loose rock, bolting the bigger rocks to the cliff and installing netting to keep any rocks that fall from landing on the road. Crews also will grind down the existing road surface, and add a new layer of asphalt and rumble strips.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.