RITZVILLE — Sections of two Adams County roads were closed on an emergency basis following wet and windy weather. Others are subject to closure as spring approaches.  

The section of Longmeier Road between Franz and Lee roads was closed, along with Lauer Road from Franz to Harder roads. Public Works Director Todd O’Brien told Adams County Commissioners Tuesday that some roads will not be passable while the ground is thawing but not dry. A map of road closures is available on the public works website.  

Bigger projects are planned once the weather warms up enough for construction. Adams County Engineer Scott Yaeger said one project started last fall and is still ongoing. 

Construction – or in this case, reconstruction — began in October 2024 on a section of Lind-Hatton Road. Yaeger said in an earlier interview that the section under construction is about five miles north of State Route 26 between South Damon Road and Phillips Road to the BNSF railroad crossing. 

The section of road under construction was closed over the winter. The work did stop over the winter; it’s scheduled to start in March 2025, with the entire project taking through June 2026, Yaeger wrote in response to an email from the Columbia Basin Herald. 

The cost for that section of the rebuild is about $3.12 million. 

Major work is planned on Schoonover Road about eight miles west of Ritzville. Among other places, it links Ritzville and Odessa. The first phase is scheduled to start in late June and be completed by October.  

“This is a reconstruction that is widening (the road), with a new subbase and surfacing with asphalt, drainage facilities and safety rail where needed,” Yaeger said.  

The project cost is about $3.13 million. 

Adams County officials will start work in late October on the bridge at Sackman Road near Othello. It’s part of a much larger project to rebuild bridges in Adams County to allow widening of the East Low Canal.  

Yaeger said the work will start once the canal is drained for the winter and should be completed by spring 2026. Cost is about $4.8 million. 

The new bridge will span the canal without piers in the water, instead being supported by abutments, called girders, anchored to the shore. The abutment and the bridge deck will be precast and assembled onsite. The bridge deck is made of precast panels which will be installed separately and then joined with concrete and a tie system. 

Rebuilding bridges along the canal is part of the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project, which involves Adams and Grant counties, the Columbia Basin Development League, other organizations and federal and state agencies. Sara Higgins, CBDL president, said in an earlier interview that the goal is to end the reliance on groundwater wells for irrigation in the Odessa region of the Columbia Basin Project. Irrigators in that section have been using groundwater wells since the 1960s when the development of the overall project stopped, which has put pressure on the underlying aquifer. 

The project involves widening two bridges in Grant County and six in Adams County. The remaining five bridges in Adams County are along the canal northwest of Othello on Providence Road, Booker Road, Herman Road, Foley Road and Cunningham Road.