QUINCY — It’s still early in the spring, but one transportation project in Quincy was completed last week. A bridge at the intersection of M Street Northeast and Road O Northwest reopened Friday. 

The bridge was widened to accommodate traffic turning onto or from Road O Northwest and the wooden railing was replaced with a metal guardrail. The bridge was closed while construction was underway. 

Quincy Administrator Pat Haley said in an earlier interview that typically the bridge railing was damaged about twice a year. Widening the bridge should better accommodate large vehicles turning at that intersection, he said.  

Construction crews are working on the second phase of a multi-year project to improve access and traffic flow to and from the industrial properties along M Street Northeast, Road O Northwest and Columbia Way. 

The first phase of the project replaced three steel pipes under the railroad tracks on Columbia Way near the intersection with Division Street. That also required repaving sections of the road. That phase was completed in December and cost about $1.57 million. 

City Engineer Ariel Belino said construction started early this year on the second phase. That’s the replacement of the existing culvert with five steel pipes under the irrigation canal at the M Street-Road O bridge. The total cost is $971,390.  

Quincy Public Works Director Carl Worley said the third phase will include work on Columbia Way to M Street and is tentatively scheduled for 2025. 

“It is a constant moving target, so it’s subject to change based on funding and budgeting,” Worley wrote in answer to an email to the Columbia Basin Herald.  

The next phase in the tentative plan is to improve the section of Columbia Way between M Street Northeast and the BNSF railroad tracks, Worley said. That project tentatively is scheduled to go out to bid this year. Sewer improvements also are planned for Columbia Way between the railroad tracks and F Street Southeast. The timeline for that project is to be determined.