GEORGE — While the Washington Department of Transportation doesn’t have a lot of roadwork projects scheduled for the Columbia Basin in 2026, a multi-year project will be starting up for the season in about a month. Construction on the Vantage Bridge will be in its third year. 

“Construction resumes in March,” said Summer Derrey, assistant communications manager for the South Central region of the Washington Department of Transportation. 

Traffic is reduced to one lane in each direction during construction season; the speed limit is reduced, and there’s a nine-foot width restriction, according to the WSDOT website. The project began in spring 2024 and is projected to be completed in spring 2028.  

The lane restrictions will lead to delays – sometimes long delays – on Interstate 90, especially eastbound on Thursdays and Fridays, and westbound Sundays, throughout the construction season. Drivers are being asked to avoid the bridge and use alternative routes. 

The state road construction schedule in Grant and Adams counties includes two projects, with a possible third one.  

The second phase of a two-year project to repave sections of I-90 is scheduled for early spring.  

“As early as April, weather permitting,” wrote Sebastian Moraga, communications specialist for WSDOT North Central region, in response to a Columbia Basin Herald email. “(There are) between 60 and 80 working days left in this project.”  

The first phase of the project resurfaced sections of I-90 between Road O Northwest and Dodson Road. Construction crews will be resurfacing sections of the freeway and some of the access ramps from Dodson Road to the Vantage Bridge. 

“Work will occur at night in the section of the project closest to Vantage, so as not to conflict with the Vantage Bridge project,” Moraga said. 

Chris Keifenheim, North Central Regional Administrator, said Tuesday that the resurfacing project is one that’s funded for 2026. 

After years of rescheduling, it looks like a roundabout will be coming to the intersection of State Route 17 and Cunningham Road near Othello in 2026. 

The roundabout originally was scheduled for construction in 2023, but a combination of right of way acquisition, funding availability and other projects in the region kept pushing it back. Moraga said construction is slated for the spring. 

“Starting in late April, hopefully,” he said. 

The roundabout won’t change the configuration of SR 17, which will stay one lane in each direction. The design includes high curbs and a mound of rock in the middle.  

Detours will be in place during construction, but those have not yet been announced.  

The tentative project focuses on maintenance; construction crews would be sealing, striping and marking sections of state roads. Among the projects on the list would be SR 17 around Othello and Moses Lake and a section of State Route 281, known as the 281 spur, between I-90 and Road 2 Northwest.  

That’s dependent on funding from the Washington Legislature, Moraga said. 

“Still very much a maybe,” he said.