Westshore Drive, Vantage Bridge work signal start of construction season

MOSES LAKE — Spring brings with it new grass, flowers blooming, more sunshine and road construction. Most projects are scheduled to start later in the summer, but a couple are underway now.

Rebuilding a section of Westshore Drive near Moses Lake started March 10. Grant County Engineer Dave Bren said the work will take about three months. 

“Westshore will be completed by mid- to late June,” he said.  

About 2.1 miles of Westshore Drive are getting a new road surface and new subsurface drainage, curbs, gutters and sidewalks. Drivers using Westshore should be ready for single-lane traffic, flagging for traffic control and detours using Road E Northeast and Road F Northeast.  

The second year of construction on the Vantage Bridge also started March 10. Traffic is reduced to one lane in each direction through May 23, then both lanes will be open in each direction until July 8. Then traffic will be restricted to one lane in each direction through the end of the construction season in October.  

Speed in the construction zone is reduced to 40 miles per hour and loads more than nine feet wide are prohibited. Work on the bridge has resulted in traffic delays, particularly on Friday afternoons eastbound and Sunday afternoons westbound. Department of Transportation officials are asking drivers to take that into account when planning their routes. 

Construction resumed Monday on a section of Lind-Hatton Road about five miles north of state Route 26 in Adams County. Sections of the road will be closed; there’s a detour route, which uses some gravel roads.  

Adams County Engineer Scott Yaeger said the project is scheduled for completion by June 27.  

While those are the only active projects, others are planned all summer long. The WSDOT will repave sections of Interstate 90 between the Vantage Bridge and George and from Dodson Road to Mae Valley. Sebastian Moraga, WSDOT communications consultant, said that project was advertised for bid this week. 

Whether or not a roundabout will be built this year at the intersection of SR 26 and South First Avenue in Othello will depend on funding.  

“We won’t know for sure until the budget situation gets clearer,” Moraga wrote in answer to an email from the Columbia Basin Herald. “Until then, we have sent the project to be advertised, and if it happens, it will happen in mid- to late summer.”  

Once it’s finished drivers will be able to cross SR 26 from South First Avenue to state Route 24 (South Broadway Avenue in Othello), which currently requires a detour via Columbia Street. Vehicles will be able to turn left at that intersection from SR 26 to SR 24, which isn’t allowed there now. 

Bren said two other major projects are planned for Grant County, one on Stratford Road, the other on Grape and Maple drives. 

The Stratford Road project is the third phase of a repaving project and will affect about three miles from Road 20 Northeast to the BNSF railroad tracks. It should start in midsummer, Bren said. 

About a quarter mile of Grape Drive and three-quarters of a mile of Maple Drive will be repaved this year, with construction scheduled to begin in midsummer. Bren said that project could still be underway when the Moses Lake School District resumes classes in the fall.  

    One road project is underway in Grant County, in red. Rebuilding a section of Westshore Drive is one of three major projects planned in the county this year.