MOSES LAKE — Adams County has been awarded a $1.7 million state and federal transportation grant to create a roundabout at the intersection of Bench Road and state Route 24, just south of Othello.

“It’s not feasible to put in a light, and there’s so much traffic on that road, that we have to do something,” said the chair of the Adams County Commission, Roger Hartwig.

According to Hartwig, the intersection has been the site of many serious and even fatal accidents, and so Adams county road engineers proposed an oblong roundabout — an oval longer in the north-south direction — to slow traffic down and reduce accidents.

“There have been numerous fatalities at that intersection,” Hartwig said.

According to the Washington State Department of Transportation web site, the intersection of Bench and Highway 24 averaged between 5,000 and 8,000 vehicles per day in 2015 — fairly typical for traffic in Othello.

Hartwig said the county intends to start construction on the roundabout in 2017 and hopes to have it done by the end of the year. However, completion depends upon both funding and weather, he said, so the county is preparing to have the project done in 2018.

If completed, this will be the first roundabout in Adams County, according to a news release from the Adams County Commission.

“This will be done at no cost to Adams County, and we are very enthusiastic about this. The engineering department did a great job on this,” he added.