Moses Lake residents invited to chip and seal info night
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake residents are being invited to an open house to discuss the city’s proposed 2025 seal coat project from 5 to 7 p.m. April 29 at the Moses Lake Civic Center auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St.
Seal coating tentatively is planned for a number of downtown city streets, including sections of West Third, West Fourth and West Fifth avenues, as well as the cross streets in that area, from Holly to Chestnut streets. East Wheeler Road from State Route 17 to South Pioneer way also is included in the project. East Hill Avenue is scheduled to get a new seal coat from SR 17 to South Division Street.
A seal coat is a mix of rock, other paving materials and oil applied over existing asphalt, or in this case, over the original asphalt and a previous seal coat. It provides a protective cover against the weather and seals cracks and pores in the pavement.
The April 29 meeting will include discussions of the project details, parking and road striping options, and planned safety improvements.
Work continues on the North Cascades Highway, with the season opening tentatively planned for next week. Lauren Loebsack, communications manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation north central region, said an opening this weekend was considered but rejected.
“With snow the forecast, the crew plans to keep the route closed over the weekend and check in Monday to clean up,” she wrote in a DOT press release. “The road remains closed because there is the potential for snowy conditions this weekend, and our crews will not be plowing or treating the road behind the closure.”
Before it opens to vehicle traffic the road is a destination for some bike riders, but Loebsack said bikers should be prepared if they decide to ride over the weekend. Among other things, there is no cell service, she said. And most federal park and forest sites are still closed.
Until it officially opens the North Cascades is closed to all traffic Monday through Friday while crews are working there, she said, including bicycles.
While it’s still early in the construction season, a couple of projects have been underway since early March.
Crews have excavated the road shoulders to add sidewalks along Westshore Drive, where 2.1 miles are being upgraded with a new road surface and subsurface, sidewalks, curbs and gutters. The road surface has been excavated and now is in the process of being graded.
Grant County Engineer David Bren said in an earlier interview that drivers should be ready for delays and to use detours to avoid the construction zone, if they can, because Westshore Drive is reduced to one lane, and is sometimes blocked altogether.
Traffic restrictions are in place on the Vantage Bridge on Interstate 90 through May 23 while crews work on the second year of a four-year project to resurface it. One lane on the bridge is open in each direction 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The speed limit is reduced to 40 miles per hour and loads more than nine feet wide are prohibited.
The restrictions will be removed from May 23 through July 8. Construction crews will be working on parts of the project that don’t require the road to be closed, said Summer Derrey, assistant WSDOT communications manager for the south-central region.
The restrictions will be back after July 8, Derrey said, and WSDOT officials are asking drivers to think about taking other routes at times of peak travel while the restrictions are in place.
Westshore Drive is one of the few active road projects so far this construction season.