Public invited to discuss Stratford Road traffic

MOSES LAKE — Residents of Moses Lake and drivers using state Route 17 are being invited to a series of meetings to discuss future transportation options in the area around SR 17 and Stratford Road.

The weeklong process, called a charrette, will start at 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Moses Lake Civic Center, 401 S. Balsam St. Levi Bisnett, design engineer for the city, said the goal is to examine the current and future traffic needs around Stratford Road.

“We know we have concerns with our SR 17 and Stratford interchange,” he said on the STUDIO BASIN podcast. “And we reached out to the state via a grant application program to get funds to discuss and design some solutions for the three-foot sidewalks that cross the interchange there. With that award, we were able to expand our footprint to not just focus on that part of town, but a one-mile radius around that location.”

The area under discussion would include SR 17 in both directions, some developed and undeveloped land in that corridor and a section of Stratford Road in both directions. While the city is in charge of Stratford Road, SR 17 is under the jurisdiction of the Washington Department of Transportation. Lynne Lynch, city public information officer, said DOT officials will be consulted as part of the process.

“(The WSDOT) will be involved in the Tuesday stakeholder meetings,” Lynch wrote in response to an email from the Columbia Basin Herald. Department of Transportation officials also have been invited to Monday’s meeting, Lynch said.

Bisnett said city officials want to hear from anyone who has an idea – or has concerns – about traffic, pedestrian and bicycle use along Stratford, people who are interested in, or are concerned about, development in that section of town.

“That part of town is a large commercial center,” he said. “We also get to discuss the lake (and) the waterfront.”

The discussion also will include consideration of West Broadway and West Third Avenue and other ways that area of town is used. Bisnett cited people who use the railroad bridge that crosses the lake to go fishing.

There is still undeveloped land in the project zone, he said, and one of the goals is to look at how cars, bikes, pedestrians and future development could, and should, work together.

“We want to do some visioning of what people like in Moses Lake and what they would like to see. We don’t know what those solutions are,” he said.

Monday’s meeting will be followed by the stakeholder meeting.

“Tuesday we’ll be meeting with property owners, stakeholders, businesses that are around the areas that we’re studying. We’ve also invited politicians and agencies that have jurisdictional control over the area to come give us input and feedback as to what they’d like to see in that area,” Bisnett said.

City officials have hired consultants and a design firm to help evaluate the ideas and comments and determine short- and long-term strategies, he said. The timeline could be anywhere from five years to a century.

The consultants and city officials will be meeting all day Wednesday.

“We take all of the input we’ve received, put the pen on paper and start drawing up some conceptual designs. ‘Hey, this is what the public would like to see. This is what the property owners would like to see.’ Create that vision and sketches of design,” Bisnett said.

“Thursday we’re going to invite the public back to come see what we came up with,” he added. “And share that community vision for the area and the preferred solutions in those areas.”

Thursday’s meeting also will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Civic Center.

Bisnett said city officials want to take the plans created through the charrette process and use them when applying for transportation funding.

“That will lead us to our next step, which is where a lot of our funding is going to go, and that’s toward the actual engineering and design of how to build the preferred solutions,” Bisnett said.

    Vehicles at the intersection of Stratford Road and Mart Road in Moses Lake.