EPHRATA — Drivers should plan alternate routes to get in and out of downtown Ephrata next Tuesday as Washington Department of Transportation crews work on the bridge over the railroad tracks at the intersection of State Route 282 and State Route 28. 

According to a WSDOT press release, SR 282 will be closed from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. from the bridge to the SR 282 intersection with Nat Washington Way.

“The crew will remove a failed piece of reinforcement rebar along the south side of the bridge and scale back the concrete to ensure no debris falls on the railroad tracks,” the WSDOT release said. “This will not affect the load capacity or safety of the bridge.”

Nat Washington Way will be open and detour signs will be in place, the release said. 

Grant County officials have reduced speed limits on two roads providing access to the Gorge Amphitheatre for 90 days, through the end of the concert season.

The speed limit will go from 50 miles per hour to 35 mph on Silica Road Northwest from Baseline Road to Road 1 Northwest. The 35 mph speed limit will be in effect for Road 1 Northwest for two miles east from the Silica Road intersection.

Kyle Foreman, public information officer for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, wrote that the 50 mph speed limit was putting amphitheater personnel working traffic control at risk of getting hit by vehicles.

“The 90 days will allow the (Grant County) Engineer to recommend an annual solution to the County Commissioners,” Foreman wrote. “(Commissioners) or the county engineer may extend this public safety action or renew it annually if necessary.”

A slope stabilization project to reduce the possibility of rocks falling in the road on State Route 17 along the shore of Soap Lake is on schedule. If it stays that way, the project should be complete between late August and early September.

The project area is the section of SR 17 from Soap Lake to the Lake Lenore Caves, where the road runs between Soap Lake or Lake Lenore and the rock embankment. The idea is to stabilize the rock face.

Crews are climbing the embankment, taking down loose rocks as they go. Along the embankment, there are rocks that are stable now but could be subject to erosion, and those rocks are being bolted to the still-stable cliff behind them. The third phase of the project is installing metal netting to catch anything that falls, to keep it from bouncing off other rocks into the road. 

The netting installation will require closing the road; that work has not been scheduled but could happen in July.

Otherwise, traffic is subject to 20-minute delays through the project zone. Drivers are stopped for 20 minutes, traffic is let through in one direction, then the other direction, then traffic is stopped for 20 minutes. Loads more than 12 feet wide are prohibited in the construction zone during work hours. There are no traffic restrictions before and after work hours.

Work resumed on the Vantage Bridge this week. Since April one lane of the bridge has been closed while crews work on repairing the surface. It’s the first year of a project scheduled for completion in 2027.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].