Road report

VANTAGE BRIDGE — Most road construction will be suspended during the Labor Day weekend, although lanes and sometimes roads will still be closed.

“All four lanes across the Vantage Bridge will reopen by 7 a.m. Friday, Aug. 29,” according to a press release from the Washington State Department of Transportation. “Travel will return to one lane in each direction by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2.”

Road construction in Grant and Adams counties is in full swing:

• The intersection of Nat Washington Way and State Route 28 in Ephrata will remain closed over Labor Day weekend, but Grant County officials are hoping to reopen the intersection as early as next week.

Grant County Central Services Director Tom Gaines said the project is ahead of schedule, and depending on the outcome of a WSDOT inspection Sept. 2, the intersection could reopen by Sept. 5.

Cost is estimated at $4 million.

“We’ve got a lot of little finish work to do,” Gaines said.

The work has discombobulated traffic to and through Ephrata. One of the detour routes uses a section of Nat Washington Way at its intersection with A Street Southeast, the access to Ephrata Middle School.

With school back in session, traffic routes to and from EMS will be revised during student drop-off and pickup times. Ephrata City Administrator Ray Towry said the traffic revisions will be in place for about 90 minutes in the morning and afternoon, with flaggers around town to help direct traffic.

People picking up and dropping off students will be routed down Basin Street Southwest to the intersection with SR 282, to the roundabout at the SR 282-A Street SE intersection, then down A Street SE to the middle school.

The traffic revisions will be in place until the roundabout opens.

• Drivers should be on the lookout for delays at the intersection of State Route 26 and South First Avenue in Othello while crews work on a new roundabout at that intersection.

Construction will be suspended over the Labor Day weekend, although crews will be working on Friday. Traffic restrictions will remain in place, with a temporary traffic signal at the intersection.

Sebastian Moraga, communications consultant with the north central region, said crews are excavating for the central island and pouring curbs along the road shoulders. The curb for the roundabout’s central island will be poured beginning next week, he said.

Construction is scheduled to continue through mid-October. Project cost is about $3.2 million.

• Construction is suspended on the I-90 paving project around Moses Lake from Friday through Monday, with crews returning to work Tuesday night. Crews have been working from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. since Aug. 18, and Moraga said that schedule will continue at least through Sept. 5.

The section of I-90 from Dodson to Mae Valley will be repaved in the eastbound lanes only, while Mae Valley to Road O NE will be both eastbound and westbound lanes. It’s the first year of a two-year project to repave sections of I-90 from the Vantage Bridge to Road O Northeast. Total project cost is $22 million.

• Chip-sealing will begin Sept. 4 on streets through the downtown Moses Lake area, from West Broadway Avenue to West Fifth Avenue and from South Pioneer Way to the intersection of West Third Avenue and West Broadway. East Hill Avenue and sections of East Wheeler Road also will get a new coat of chip seal, and a roundabout will be installed at the intersection of Wheeler Road and Road L NE.

Chip sealing is projected to be completed by Sept. 12, said Lynne Lynch, marketing and communications director for the city.

Drivers should be prepared for temporary detours and traffic control while chip-sealing is underway.

The streets will get a new set of stripes once the chip-sealing is completed. Most streets that are currently two lanes in each direction will be revised to one lane in each direction with a center left-turn lane. The exception is Wheeler Road east of State Route 17, which will remain two lanes in each direction.

    Drivers navigate the intersection of State Route 28 and South First Avenue in Othello. Construction on a new roundabout is scheduled to last through mid-October.