Regional construction wrapping up for 2024

QUINCY — if one of the signs of spring is the appearance of big machines to grind pavement and rebuild roadbeds – road construction, in short – one of the signs of winter is the disappearance of all those machines and the end of all those projects. And halfway through October, most of those projects are done for 2024. 

There is still some roadwork out there that will cause delays for a few more weeks, and one project that starts next week. The Lind-Hatton Road project in Adams County will require a section of the road to be closed during the winter. 

“Phase One is scheduled to start the week of Oct. 23 and will continue, weather dependent, until Dec. 12,” wrote Adams County Engineer Scott Yaeger in answer to a Columbia Basin Herald email. “Then work will be suspended until mid-March 2025.” 

Yaeger said in an earlier interview that the section under construction is about five miles north of State Route 26 between South Damon Road and Phillips Road to the BNSF railroad crossing. About 2.98 miles will be paved; the contract was awarded to Culbert Construction, Pasco. 

Two miles of the road will be closed over the winter, but a detour will be available. Over the winter traffic will be routed on paved roads, Yaeger said. The detour route will change in spring 2025 and will include gravel roads.   

Reconstruction of Road H Southeast, near Mardon Resort in Grant County, is almost but not quite complete. Grant County Engineer Dave Bren wrote that crews are still painting and striping traffic lane lines, reinstalling guard rails and other end-of-project jobs. That should take about two more weeks, Bren said. 

A railroad crossing on Columbia Way in Quincy is closed to traffic and will stay closed through early December while it’s rebuilt.  

“This location was chosen because the crossing has the most problems, likely due to the amount of truck traffic,” wrote Quincy City Administrator Pat Haley in response to an earlier Columbia Basin Herald email. 

City officials wanted to finish the project earlier in the year, but Burlington Northern crews weren’t available until early October, Haley wrote. Project cost is about $1.57 million.  

It’s the first phase of a multi-phase project along Columbia Way. Construction crews will be installing three steel pipes under the railroad tracks, along with repaving the sections of the road affected by the construction. 

The second phase will replace an existing culvert with the installation of five steel pipes under the irrigation canal at M Street Northeast and Road O Northwest. Cost of the second phase will be $971,380, with the work starting next spring. 

And traffic over the Vantage Bridge will be back to two lanes in each direction at the end of October. 

“We will be wrapped for the season and all the lanes reopened Friday, Nov. 1,” wrote Megan Lott, South Central Region communications manager for the Washington Department of Transportation.