New caution lights coming to Othello's Main Street
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 1 month AGO
The pedestrian safety project on Othello's Main Street will add bulb outs to the corners at Fifth and Sixth avenues, as illustrated.
City of Othell
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. | February 17, 2021 1:00 AM
OTHELLO — New caution lights to improve pedestrian safety will go in at two Main Street intersections, Fifth and Sixth streets, in Othello this spring.
Othello City Council members will vote on a contract to construct the new caution lights at Monday’s council meeting.
City engineer Shawn O’Brien said the goal of the warning lights is to reduce the chances a pedestrian could get hit at intersections that have substantial pedestrian traffic. There are restaurants on Fifth Street that attract students from Othello High School during lunchtime, O’Brien said. And, the Othello Post Office is on the Sixth Street corner.
There was an accident involving a pedestrian at the Sixth Street intersection in 2016, O’Brien said.
Council members will decide on a contract for $629,080 to ESF Solutions, in Walla Walla. Construction costs will be paid by a federal safety grant, O’Brien said. Design costs were about $79,000, with the city paying about $7,900 of that. The rest was paid through the federal grant.
Othello’s Main Street is pretty wide, five lanes of traffic and parking lanes along both sides.
“The pedestrians are in the traveled way for a long stretch,” O’Brien said.
The goal is to slow down traffic at those intersections. The pedestrian signals will arch over the street like a regular stoplight, but will flash yellow lights. Pedestrians will push a button when they want to cross the street. O’Brien said there wasn’t enough traffic to warrant a traffic light.
The sidewalks will be redesigned at the corners, expanding into the parking lane, a design called a bulb-out. That will reduce the distance across the street, O’Brien said.
The project could start in late March if the council approves the contract Monday. The support poles are not expected to arrive until June, O’Brien said, so the contractor will have some options.
The demolition and concrete work might begin in March, with the project finished when the poles arrive, or the work might begin when the poles arrive. The contractor will have about eight weeks to finish the project, O’Brien said.
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