MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council voted Tuesday to accept a Washington State Department of Transportation grant to study ways to make the overpass at Stratford Road and State Route 17 safer to cross on foot.

The grant, a little over $685,000, will go to design a solution to improve bicyclist and pedestrian crossing on the bridge, according to the WSDOT’s project summary. Moses Lake City Engineer Richard Law told the council that the sidewalk, which is less than three feet wide, is dangerous for pedestrians moving back and forth between the neighborhoods north of the highway and the shopping areas to the south.

“Do we have any idea what the pedestrian traffic is across that bridge?” asked Council Member Judy Madewell.

“It's not that much,” Law said. “Because who would be crazy enough to try to do it? There was a lady that lived in the neighborhood to the north, and I haven't seen her in a while but she was in — I don't know what you'd call it — a jazzy scooter. She would drive in the outside lane to get to the store, because she couldn't get on the sidewalk, and it wasn't wide enough for her scooter anyway. And I have witnessed a mother with a stroller and a little kid in tow, trying to (hold them and walk in single file) on a sidewalk that's only (a few feet) wide right next to all of the cars. So the pedestrian traffic is probably very low. Because who would be crazy enough? You'd have to be pretty desperate to feel safe trying to get back and forth across there.”

The grant isn’t for any actual construction on the bridge, Law said; it’s just to study options and determine what’s feasible. Possible solutions using the existing structure included narrowing the driving lanes and widening the sidewalks, or building an underpass under the highway for pedestrians, or even a hanging sidewalk on the side of the bridge. 

“To build a new bridge is very expensive,” Law said. “The most cost-effective thing would be to narrow the lanes and build wider sidewalks. Or, the other option is, you demo one side of the sidewalk, and you build one wide sidewalk on one side and use the existing bridge deck. So if we had to do it with the city of Moses Lake’s money and (go with) the least expensive option, that would probably be the solution.”

Getting the whole project done would be likely to run about $25 million, Law told the council. If the city can show the Department of Transportation that the need exists and can be met, state money could be made available to cover it.

“If we can leverage their money to come up with a great design that will eliminate not only pedestrian barriers but traffic barriers in an area where we know we have problems, and we can make a great pitch to the state and show need, we we can probably leverage a lot of money from the state to make this happen,” Law told the council. “We're not going to pay for it ourselves. We can't, there's just no way to afford that.”

“I've spoken with DOT quite frequently and know some of our reps in the area, and they said exactly what he's saying: those pedestrian-friendly projects they're putting extra money towards. So under that umbrella, we can get that particular area cleaned up.”

A motion to accept the grant passed unanimously.

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.