Construction contract award delayed for Yonezawa Boulevard project
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 9 months AGO
Vehicles traverse the intersection at Yonezawa Boulevard and Pioneer Way. Construction at the intersection has been delayed.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | April 16, 2021 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake city officials have not awarded a construction contract for revisions at the intersection of Yonezawa Boulevard and Pioneer Way because they must coordinate with the state Department of Transportation. Total project cost also has not been determined.
But Lynne Lynch, Moses Lake public information officer, said the contract will have to be awarded by June for the project to avoid being shut down by winter weather. The project also prompted city officials to delay resurfacing a section of Valley Road tentatively scheduled for 2021 to 2022, Lynch said.
The project will extend Yonezawa Boulevard through the existing intersection to an access road connecting the new Vicki Groff Elementary School with Yonezawa Boulevard. That section of Pioneer Way is also part of state Route 17, and the city must get permission from the Washington State Department of Transportation for access.
“We are working with WSDOT on access requirements, but the process is taking longer than originally anticipated,” Lynch said.
The new Vicki Groff Elementary School is scheduled to open this fall. Moses Lake Avenue provides access to the school campus from East Nelson Road. It will be one lane in each direction.
The Yonezawa extension will end at the Moses Lake Avenue intersection, and be just like the existing road on the west side of Pioneer Way, with two lanes in each direction, center turn lanes and landscaped sections dividing the east-west lanes, called “center islands.”
Currently, the intersection is controlled by a stoplight and city officials plan to keep the stoplight. But because it’s also a state highway, that, too, will have to be approved by the Department of Transportation.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.
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