SR 17-Cunningham Road roundabout scheduled for 2026
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 1 month AGO
Cars and trucks wait to access State Route 17 at its intersection with Cunningham Road in Othello. After a few years of delays, a roundabout will be built at the intersection in 2026.
CHERYL SCHWEIZER/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | July 22, 2025 4:24 PM
OTHELLO — A long-delayed roundabout will be coming to State Route 17 and Cunningham Road in spring 2026.
“The project goes to (advertisement for bids) in November and will be awarded in February, at which point we will start looking at a start date,” wrote Sebastian Moraga, communications specialist with the Washington State Department of Transportation, in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald.
Cunnigham Road is Main Street, where it runs through Othello.
The goal, Moraga said, is to start when the weather permits next spring.
“There’s some chance of variability, based on our staffing levels and the duration of other projects, but that’s the plan,” Moraga said.
State Route 17 will be open during construction, Moraga said, with temporary lights controlling traffic. But access to Cunningham Road at the intersection will be closed.
“You won’t be able to turn right or left off SR 17 onto Cunningham; you will either have to take Lee Road or go through the city,” Moraga said.
Drivers north of town can take a detour to Lee Road to get to Othello and West Lee Road to get to Cunningham Road. Drivers south of town can use SR 26 to get to Othello and South Steele Road off SR 26 to access Cunningham Road.
Department of Transportation officials originally announced in 2021 that a roundabout would be built at that intersection in 2023.
Design has been completed, and rights of way questions have been resolved. But construction was delayed due to other DOT projects in the North Central region. The SR 17 roundabout wasn’t among the projects funded in 2025.
The roundabout won’t change the configuration of SR 17, which will remain one lane in each direction. The design includes high curbs and a mound of rock in the middle.
In 2021, DOT officials said the intersection had been identified as one with a high number of injury accidents. The analysis showed the highest number of injury accidents involved drivers crossing SR 17.
The intersection has been modified over time, with left turn lanes for northbound and southbound traffic and a right turn lane for southbound traffic. The intersection was reworked to improve sight lines, and the speed limit was reduced, but those revisions didn’t solve the problems, according to DOT officials in 2021.
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