Roundabout planned for Cunningham Road and State Route 17 intersection
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 11 months AGO
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 21, 2021 1:00 AM
OTHELLO — The intersection of Cunningham Road and state Route 17 near Othello will get a roundabout in 2023, with Washington State Department of Transportation engineers designing the project in 2022.
Cunningham Road is one of the main entrances into Othello and is renamed Main Street where it cuts through town. James Reynolds, WSDOT project engineer, said the Cunningham Road and state Route 17 intersection has been identified as an intersection with a high number of serious injury collisions.
“This is a safety project,” Reynolds said. “We’ve already done a few things (traffic revisions) that didn’t work out.”
For instance, the intersection has a left turn lane for both northbound and southbound traffic, and a right turn lane for southbound traffic. The speed limit on state Route 17 has been dropped to 50 mph, and the intersection was reworked to improve sight lines, Reynolds said.
The benefit of a roundabout, Reynolds said, is that it reduces speeds.
“It (lower speed) reduces injury collisions by almost 85 to 90%,” he said.
When it’s built, the roundabout will be one lane north and south, Reynolds said. The goal is to complete the project before harvest begins.
There are some detours, but the DOT will be required to keep routes available on state Route 17.
“It will definitely have some traffic impact,” he said.
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