Limited Valley Road work to continue during fair

Funding for Yonezawa traffic circle announced at council meeting

MOSES LAKE — Construction crews will continue their work on W. Valley Road next week despite an original agreement with the city to halt all work during the Grant County Fair. “We can tell (the contractor), ‘No,’ but they’re still responsible under the contract for site safety and traffic control,” Moses Lake City Engineer Richard Law told council members at a regular meeting Tuesday evening. Law said the contractor rebuilding much of W. Valley Road, Wenatchee-based Selland, is ahead of schedule and asked to be able to do limited work — placing manhole covers and dealing with storm sewer catch basins on the south side of the road — because they need to have crews there during fair week anyway to keep the site secure and ensure traffic safety signs and cones stay in place. Work crews began tearing the $2.8 million project to rebuild W. Valley Road from Stratford Road to Paxson Road in June, with the proviso that work halt during fair week. Council Member Dustin Swartz said the request amounts to changing the rules, that the other bidders on the project might have concerns, and that allowing work to go during the fair might make getting to and from the fairgrounds more difficult. “There’s truck and trailer traffic at all hours of the day,” Swartz said. “There’s mixed messaging there.” ...