The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – Columbia County road projects old and new were presented in April to county commissioners. To assist with one major new project, the county road department has hired two engineering interns for the summer to inventory and prioritize roads with clear-zone issues.

The Federal Highway Administration defines a clear zone as the total roadside border area, starting at the edge of the traveled way, available for safe use by errant vehicles. This area may consist of a shoulder, a recoverable slope, a non-recoverable slope, and/or a clear run-out area.

“The power poles on Weinhard Road, for example, will likely be identified as a hazard,” County Engineer Andrew Woods said. The county is also looking at areas where additional guardrails should be considered.

The Washington State Department of Transportation awarded Columbia County $432,240 in recent years to work on road safety issues such as guardrails on Lyon’s Ferry Road and Tucannon Road. A county-wide sign inventory and upgrades as well as the clear-zone inventory will benefit from this grant.

Woods also advised commissioners on the status of one road project that’s been on hold for years. The Tucannon Road reconstruction, approved in 2007, has not yet started but made some headway in the last few weeks as the Washington State County Road Administration Board granted Columbia County a two-year extension on the project, according Woods.

If the extension had not been approved, the county would have been required to return the money reimbursed thus far in design costs, Woods told commissioners. Columbia County was granted $1.3 million in state gas-tax funds from the Rural Arterial Trust Account eight years ago for the project that would widen the road between milepost 12.9 and 15.5 on the Tucannon.

“We have run into several delays,” Woods said last week. “Among them were a moratorium on project reimbursement due to the state RATA account balance being low. We had to suspend design work because we could not be reimbursed for the work.” In addition, the consultant had to redo a large amount of design work due to an error they made, Woods said. Most recently, new environmental and right-of-way acquisition requirements we were required that further hindered progress, he explained.

Construction is now planned for the spring and summer of 2016, Woods said. The road will be closed to through traffic during the work. In addition to widen the roadway, the reconstruction will correct all deficient curves – including a more gentle curve near milepost 13, the existing roadway corridor will be cleared of any obstructions in the shoulder, and existing fence lines will be moved back to the county’s right-of-way.

“The property owners have, for the most part, been supportive of the project and are as eager as we are to get the project done,” Woods said.