Various road projects underway in Columbia Basin

MOSES LAKE — Drivers around Moses Lake will have seen the truck with the tank in the back and the guy with a hose looking like he’s vacuuming the street. Actually, the attachment that resembles a vacuum is sealing cracks in the pavement.  

Levi Bisnett, design engineer for the city of Moses Lake, said crews have finished crack-sealing most of the downtown area. Crack sealing is projected to continue through mid-June, he said. 

Moses Lake has a major chip-seal project scheduled for later this summer, which was the subject of a public meeting earlier this week. 

A major chip-seal project is also coming to Ephrata, with a section of Nat Washington Way on the list, as well as a major section of Basin Street SW. Sections of Maringo and Statter roads, parts of Third Avenue SW to 10th Avenue SW are on the project list, along with areas of Parkway Boulevard, and sections of F Street SE to Ivy Street SE, among others.  

The Nat Washington Way project will extend from state Route 281 to Basin Street SW. The section of Basin Street SW scheduled for chip seal extends from Ninth Avenue SW to the city limits.  

Ephrata Public Works Director Rob Harris said chip sealing is scheduled to begin in early June. Some streets, Parkway Boulevard and F Street SE through Ivy Street SE among them, will get two coats of chip-seal. Others, including Maringo and Statter roads, will get one coat. 

The Nat Washington Way project is funded by a grant for about $158,000 from the state Transportation Improvement Board. Total project cost for the rest of the streets is about $940,000. 

It's still relatively early in the construction season, but a couple of projects have been underway for almost two months. 

Curbs and sidewalks are starting to go in on a 2.1-mile section of Westshore Drive in Moses Lake that’s getting not only curbs and sidewalks but a whole new road. The roadbed has been completely excavated, with the base layers in the process of being rebuilt. 

The sections of Westshore Drive immediately north and south of the construction zone already have been repaved and have sidewalks, Grant County Engineer Dave Bren said in an earlier interview. This project connects all those sections. 

The Moses Lake School District planned to build a new elementary school at the intersection of Westshore Drive and Road 4 Northeast, a project that’s still pending. Bren said the upgrades to Westshore are independent of the school district’s plans. The Westshore Drive upgrades predate the district’s tentative decision to build a school there, he said. 

The other major regional project that began in March is the second year of construction on the Vantage Bridge. The bridge’s aging road deck is being replaced, a project that’s scheduled to take four years. 

The bridge will have one lane open in each direction seven days per week, 24 hours per day, from now until May 23. Both lanes will be open in both directions from May 23 through July 8, then will go back to one lane eastbound and westbound through the end of construction season in late October. 

Summer Derrey, Washington Department of Transportation assistant communications manager for the south-central region, said work will continue on the bridge during June, but won’t require closing lanes.  

The speed limit in the bridge construction zone is 40 miles per hour and there are width restrictions. 

Crews have finished emergency repairs on a section of state Route 971, which provided access to the south shore of Lake Chelan. The road had been closed for 58 days due to a rockslide. 

Crews removed rocks overhanging the road and installed rock anchors, according to a WSDOT press release.  

    Streets in and around downtown Moses Lake, as well as East Wheeler Road, could see some major changes as part of a seal coat project this summer.