MOSES LAKE — Grant County officials are starting the first phases of a multiyear project to improve a road that would connect Mae Valley to Ephrata.  

Grant County Engineer Dave Bren said work on Drumheller Road started in 2023, with crews doing what he called “rough grading” for about 5 miles south from Dodson Road. For 2024, county officials have applied for money through the real estate excise tax fund to do rough grading about 3.2 miles north from the end of Hiawatha Road. 

Public works officials requested $150,000.  

“It’s rough grading of the right of way,” Bren said, clearing out the brush and rocks and leveling the ground to a width of 60 feet. “Which will feel more like a road.”  

Over the next few years county public works crews will be working to complete rough grading on the entire length of Drumheller, Bren said. How far construction crews get in 2024 will depend on the success of the REET grant application and the weather. 

Road construction requires favorable weather conditions; the conditions required depend on the project. For grading and clearing, Bren said the main requirement is that it’s warm enough during the day to prevent the ground from freezing solid. 

“Last year we went all the way up to the beginning of December,” Bren said. “But once it freezes (solid) we can’t do it anymore.” 

Another mile is scheduled for grading in 2025, which should complete the rough grading portion, according to the county’s road program. Once that’s completed, the road would have a gravel surface added, a project scheduled for 2026. The next phase would be paving the road in sections, a project that’s projected to stretch to 2030 at least. 

A different source of funding would be required for the paving, however, and the county’s plan suggests establishing a road improvement district to pay for it. A road improvement district is an example of a “local improvement district” which under Washington law would levy special assessments on property owners within the LID for capital improvements. The LID must be approved by the local government, Grant County in this case, and the property owners in the proposed district, according to the Municipal Research and Services Center. 

Bren said he did some research on the land along the route, and discovered the road was named for early Grant County residents. Among other things, the Drumheller family raised sheep. 

“You can still see where their sheep (enclosures) used to be,” he said.  

What is now mainly a path was once a stagecoach route, Bren said, dating back to about 1908.