Yonezawa roundabout workshop set

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake residents are being invited to an open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Moses Lake Civic Center to learn more about a proposed project to build a roundabout at Yonezawa Boulevard and South Pioneer Way.

The open house will be in the Moses Lake City Council chambers, 401 S. Balsam St. The roundabout will be the subject of a presentation to the council at the regular meeting that begins at 6:30 p.m.

City officials have a preliminary design, according to information on the city website, and plan to apply for state funding for construction in August. The goal is to put the project out for bid in summer 2025, but the timeline is contingent on obtaining funding. No construction date has been set. 

The intersection was repaved last month as part of the project to upgrade the surface of State Route 17 where it runs through Moses Lake. At the time that project was being planned Jeff Deal, the project engineer with the Washington Department of Transportation, said the upgrades at the Yonezawa intersection would be confined to a new road surface.

Yonezawa dead-ends at the intersection, controlled with a stoplight. The roundabout would allow Yonezawa to be extended, although the project does not include extending it. 

The roundabout will have two lanes in each direction on Pioneer Way (SR 17), and one left-turn and one right-turn lane onto Pioneer Way at Yonezawa. Drivers turning onto Yonezawa would have one lane of travel for a short distance before it widened to two lanes. 

All four sides of the intersection will have crosswalks with flashing lights.

That’s a busy intersection, and traffic engineers expect it to get busier, according to the presentation. The traffic light is projected to be inadequate for the volume of traffic eventually, even if Yonezawa is never extended, it said. The roundabout is expected to be adequate for traffic volumes for about the next 25 years.

The project will include new street lighting at the intersection, sidewalks, crosswalks and ramps that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. A new stormwater system will be built as part of the project. 

The roundabout will be built to allow trucks to navigate it. The project would be subject to a detour when construction starts. 

City officials have agreed to build a second access point to Groff Elementary; the road it’s located on, Moses Lake Avenue, currently is a dead end. The roundabout would allow more development on the east side of Pioneer Way, according to the presentation.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

    This graphic provided by the city of Moses Lake indicates the location of an anticipated traffic circle near the Wendy's off SR 17.