Work gets underway on Hume Road project

Washington state officials determined the surface of Hume Road was in worse shape than any other road in the region in June 2012.

Because of the deteriorating condition of Hume Road, Whitman County was awarded about $2 million in federal Surface Transportation Program funding, according to county Public Works Director Mark Storey.

The county will rebuild nine miles of the road, starting at Steptoe and ending just 3.5 miles shy of Oakesdale, Storey said.

Hume Road links Highway 195 with Oakesdale and Highway 27. The route provides a cross-county link from Tekoa and the northeast section of the county to Colfax and Highway 26 connections.

Storey said the road is not unsafe. He blamed part of the condition of Hume Road on the annual freezes and thaws that weaken the sub-surface. He also said it was never designed to bare the weight of heavy loads generated by semi traffic.

Storey said the road is at least 100 years old, and he guessed it might have been paved some time in the 1960s or ‘70s.

Crews from Central Washington Asphalt began pre-level work on the road earlier this week, working around rainy weather conditions, he said.

Storey said the county has received funding approval of $3 million for the fourth phase of work on the Almota Road, but work on that portion of Almota Road won’t get underway for another two to three years.

That phase will be from the Onecho Church north to the top of Henning Hill.

The last Almota section upgrade ran more than three miles from the Duncan Springs intersection south to the Sommers Road intersection at Union Flat Creek.

The prior segment in 2007 ran north from Duncan Springs intersection to Airport Road. That project in now being tied in with the Airport Road project which is being finished this year.

Almota Road is the primary route used to haul grain to the Port of Almota from the west and central regions of Whitman County.

The Almota grade project is now part of Highway 194 which provides a link from the east side of the county via Union Center.

The fourth phase of the Almota Road upgrade will extend from the top of Henning Hill to the junction with State Route 194 at the top of the Almota grade. The actual descent down the grade is State Route 194.

Total cost for the fourth phase is estimated at just more than $3 million.

Storey also said work is progressing on the Airport Road. Paving is scheduled to begin in late July to early August, before Washington State University students begin arriving for fall semester.