Adams Co. road projects moving forward

RITZVILLE — The Adams County Commissioner’s regular Jan. 23 meeting featured an update on several ongoing and future road projects in the county, as well as a discussion of potential state route jurisdiction changes.

County Engineer Scott Yaeger went over the project updates.

“Danekas Overlay, that's the first project out of the gate this year. We’ve got plans ready, got all our environmental stuff done, so we should be ready to put something out in February.”

The Danekas Road Overlay 2 project is a pavement repair and overlay of a 4-mile stretch of Danekas Road northeast of Ritzville, according to the Adams County Public Works Department’s 2024-2029 Transportation Improvement Plan. The plan states that the $1.4 million project is completely federally funded.

“Then we move on to Lind-Hatton 3 scheduled for this year,” Yaeger said. “We got some comments back from some tribes, so we're going out in the newspaper for consultants and perform the cultural resource survey on that project.”

Lind-Hatton Road Project 3 is a road reconstruction and drainage structures replacement project of almost 4 miles of road estimated to cost approximately  $2.5 million, according to the improvement plan. It is fully state-funded. 

Yeager said the department will soon be able to perform surveys of future projects Schoonover Road Project 1 and Herman Road 2, slated for 2025 and 2027 respectively.

“As soon as we don't have to walk through mud and it dries out, we will start doing our survey out there (on Schoonover),” he said. “Same thing with Herman Road.”

The commissioners also unanimously approved and signed interlocal agency agreements for the finished Deal Road 2 and Hatton Road Safety projects. 

“What this is doing is it's redistributing some of the money to cover…construction engineering costs that we went over what we decided we were going to spend, but we have enough construction money left to pay for that,” Yeager said. “So that we can get reimbursed sooner than later we have to go through this.”

During the meeting, Public Works Director Todd O’Brien discussed a state initiative to reevaluate the jurisdiction for its state routes and highways based on state codes.

“There's some specific language in there that says that they should go through a route jurisdiction study or a program to compare it against (some) criteria,” O’Brien said. “If it meets (the) criteria, then it should be a state route. If it doesn't, where does it fit best within the jurisdictions that are defined in Washington state? The next one down would be a county, and the next one down would be a city.”

O’Brien said the concern is whether the state determines certain routes in Adams County to be in the county’s jurisdiction, placing the financial responsibility for maintaining those routes on the county’s shoulders as well as potentially changing traffic patterns. The evaluation is a complex process and will include a public comment period, O’Brien said.

“When I look at the most vulnerable ones, obviously (State Route) 21 is on the list,” O’Brien said. “We've had it before, we might (get it back). Then the next most vulnerable one would be (State Route) 261. Then the remainder of (roads) in the county, I can't imagine them converting back. And again, the map very well could stay the same way that it is.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. 

    A portion of Danekas Road, highlighted in red, northeast of Ritzville, is the subject of 2024’s first Adams County Public Works road construction project. The 4-mile stretch is scheduled for a $1.4 million pavement repair and overlay.