It’s road construction season in the Tri-Cities.

Numerous projects are popping up or plugging along – from a high-profile bridge repainting effort to a highway intersection overhaul aimed at making way for development.

Read on for details about the roadwork happening across the community.

State road work

Perhaps the most noticeable road project happening in the Tri-Cities this year is the repainting of the Highway 395 Pioneer Memorial Bridge, known as the blue bridge.

The $33.5 million project is needed to preserve and maintain the 70-year-old bridge, which last was fully repainted in 1995. The work will go beyond cosmetics.

“It’s more than just putting on different coats of paint,” said Scott Klepach, a spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation, or WSDOT. “In order to repaint, the crews first have to go in there and essentially remove, peel back, blast off the existing paint. While they’re doing that – preparing for painting – they can see, is there rust in certain areas that they can fix and clean up? Are there bolts that need to be tightened or exchanged? They can do all that work; that’s part of this project as well.”

Once that work is done, crews will repaint the entire bridge the same bright blue color – sometimes called Air Force blue – that’s been familiar to Tri-Citians for decades.

The work, which is causing intermittent lane closures in both directions, is expected to continue throughout the year, with the project wrapping up by the end of 2024.

“Tens of thousands of people every day use the blue bridge,” Klepach said. “When you hear painting, it’s like, that’s a nice idea, but it actually goes right to the structural integrity of the bridge itself. It’s crews knowing that wear and tear is going to happen over time and getting ahead of that before it becomes a concern.”

WSDOT also has a couple of other area road projects in the works or in the pipeline.

Traffic signal work at Highway 240 and Columbia Center Boulevard in Kennewick should wrap up this month with minimal impact on drivers. The cost is about $1.8 million.

Highway 240 corridor improvements west of Hagen Road to Stevens Drive in Richland are expected to begin later this summer and cost about $6.2 million.

Kennewick

The summer months will be busy for road work in Kennewick.

An asphalt overlay project is expected to kick off this summer and take three to four months to complete. The road work will affect portions of Grandridge Boulevard, Canal Drive, Creekstone Drive, West Clearwater Avenue and West 10th Avenue.

The cost is about $3 million, including a $1 million carryover from similar work last year and $330,000 in grant money from the state, said Heath Mellotte, design services manager.

In many of the spots, “we’re going to do the paving at night,” he said.

Bituminous surface treatment, or BST, is planned on portions of some lower-volume roads in June and July, including Ridgeline Drive, South Clodfelter Road, West Seventh Avenue and South Rainier Street. The cost is $512,000.

A bustling intersection – Columbia Center Boulevard and West Deschutes Avenue – got a $2.1 million spruce-up this spring, including a right-hand turn lane for drivers headed north onto Columbia Center Boulevard from Deschutes, plus everything from curb work to a new signal system. A roundabout also was added at Deschutes and North Colorado Street.

The project received a mix of funding, including state and federal dollars.

The work is “in preparation to widen Columbia Center Boulevard north of Deschutes Avenue, adding a third lane for northbound and southbound through traffic on Columbia Center Boulevard to Quinault Avenue,” the city said in a project page on its website.

As part of that preparation, the city also plans intersection improvements at Columbia Center Boulevard and West Quinault Avenue this summer, including adding a second left-hand turn lane for eastbound traffic turning onto Columbia Center Boulevard and a second through-lane for westbound traffic on Quinault.

The estimated cost is $2.5 million; the project is federally funded.

Road crews install concrete curbing along Burns Road adjacent to a new west Pasco development near the intersection of Broadmoor Boulevard in this file photo.

| Courtesy Scott Butner Photography

Pasco

Pasco recently celebrated a major milestone in its $22 million Lewis Street overpass project – the new overpass opened to traffic. “There will still be some work in the surrounding area, but it won’t affect the overpass. It’ll stay open. It won’t close again,” said Kent McCue, the city’s construction manager.

The project, which replaced the old 1930s underpass, has “been actively in construction for 2 ½ years” and it’s been in the works for decades, McCue said.

The pieces of the project still to be finished range from landscaping to demolition of the old underpass. The project is expected to wrap up by late fall.

Other major road projects in Pasco include intersection improvements at West Court Street and Road 68. A roundabout is being added.

“Looking at the accident statistics, as well as the traffic counts for that intersection – it warranted an upgrade,” McCue said.

Construction will start in the spring, with a late fall completion, McCue said.

The cost is estimated at $2.6 million to $2.9 million and includes a mix of funding sources.

Safety improvements on Sylvester Street are in progress and include adding a center through-lane and sidewalks, bike lanes and a multi-use pedestrian/bicycle path, depending on the section of the road. The cost is $3.2 million.

A $2.5 million overlay of a section of Oregon Avenue should be done by early fall, McCue said. It includes some updates to ramps and other infrastructure.

The overhaul of the Broadmoor Boulevard interchange at Interstate 182 also continues plugging along, in anticipation of continued development in the area.

“Before (the project), as you got off of 182 going eastbound, you came up to a four-way signalized intersection. What this does is eliminate that four-way intersection, and it puts a roundabout there and then the deceleration lane loops underneath the interchange, comes around, ties into the roundabout and then you can go either north or south from there,” McCue said, adding that the  configuration will eliminate the bottleneck and create “more of a free-flowing intersection.”

The project is being managed by a consultant; it’s expected to wrap up by spring 2025.

Richland

In Richland, a pavement preservation project is scheduled to start in mid-June and wrap up before the beginning of the school year. The budget is $4.1 million.

The project will affect a number of neighborhood streets, plus Wellsian Way, Lee Boulevard, Goethals Drive, Bradley Boulevard, Columbia Point Drive, Stevens Drive and Williams Boulevard. The work “extends the life cycle of the street and ensures that we’re able to keep the street in good condition for a longer amount of time before needing to reconstruct it,” said Carlo D’Alessandro, interim public works director.

Additionally, Stevens Drive between Swift Avenue and Lee Boulevard will be reconstructed. The project is expected to go to bid before the summer, and work likely will take three months or so, D’Alessandro said. The cost is estimated at $1 million.

In the fall, the city plans improvements to the intersection of George Washington Way and Columbia Point Drive, including lane additions and signal work. The project will take a couple of months and is estimated to cost $3 million.

The city also plans mini-roundabouts in some neighborhoods in central Richland for safety and traffic control.

The city also will see some projects delivered by private development.

At the intersection of North Steptoe Street and Tapteal Drive, “they’ll be realigning Tapteal at the railroad tracks, putting in a signal and making repairs and modifications to the rail itself,” D’Alessandro said. Steptoe is expected to close for a weekend for that work.

A private developer also will install a roundabout at Dallas Road and Trowbridge Boulevard.

Both of those projects are expected to happen this summer.

Another project by private development is under way – at Queensgate Drive between Keene and Shockley roads. “They’re doing phase one of a development, which involves residential work on the south portion of that plot of land. As part of that, they have to connect Queensgate between Keene and Shockley,” D’Alessandro said.

West Richland

In West Richland, work on about 1 ½ blocks of South 38th Avenue between Orchard Street and King Drive recently wrapped up. The project repaired damage from a water main break and required traffic to detour to Bombing Range Road.

The cost was about $200,000, said Julie West, capital projects manager.

Other projects in the city include a water main replacement that will affect Chelan and Arlington drives and parts of Fallon Drive and South 46th Avenue from about mid-summer to fall, West said. The estimated cost is $730,000.

Pavement sealing also is planned this summer on Paradise Way from Onyx Avenue to Bombing Range Road, and crack sealing is planned beforehand on Bombing Range, Keene and Paradise roads and Belmont Boulevard. The estimated cost is $530,000.

Finally, flashing beacons will be added at several crosswalks near schools this year. The estimated cost is $510,000, covered by state Transportation Improvement Board funding.