Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Whitman County commissioners Monday approved the 2018 road construction program, an annual step required by funding agencies.
Included in the 2018 program are Almota Four reconstruction, Almota Three surveying and engineering, the remaining guardrail from the federal road safety program, Hume Road surveying and nearly four miles of paving on Sand Road.
The largest is Almota Four. The fourth and final part of the Almota Road reconstruction will be done before Phase Three because its funding was approved first.
Phase Four reconstruction is set for next year, an estimated $3.5-$4 million job between Onecho Bible Church and Union Flat Creek.
Phase four is the final stage of the 15-mile project which began in 2009.
The Almota Four work will widen and improve the road’s base, and lower it 10 feet in one area to improve the crest on a hill.
Phase three, a 3.8-mile stretch north from the intersection of Sommers Road, is set for reconstruction in 2019.
“They’re both gonna be like a root canal on steroids,” said Mark Storey, Whitman County Public Works director.
Sand Road paving will go from the Idaho state line to near the intersection of Brown Road, eliminating the gravel stretch of the road.
The plans have long been in the making, since the early 2000s when Storey and staff noticed something.
“Sand Road took an inordinate amount of maintenance for a gravel road,” he said.
The road serves as an alternate route between Pullman and Moscow.
For Hume Road, county commissioners approved Sept. 5 an amended contract for projected work in 2020-2022. Set for rebuilding three miles of the road, the county received an additional $400,000 in funding in August from the state’s Rural Arterial Transportation Account.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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