Columbia and Walla Walla Counties took our board and staff on a tour of three RAP Program project sites across both counties in various stages of construction.
After a full day of board meeting presentations, discussion and decision making, it was a beautiful morning to head outdoors and tour a few local area road and bridge projects.
Lower Hogeye Road
Type | 3R Construction Status | Construction, Nearly Complete Funding | $3.25 million from RAP (including match adjustment and additional $235,500 in RATA funds)
This two and a half mile stretch of Columbia County's Lower Hogeye Road serves as a vital connection between the Hogeye Valley and Highway 12, grain storage and rail service.
The roadway had poor geometry and a narrow bituminous surface treatment (BST surface with considerable patching. To meet modern safety standards, the road has been widened from 19.5 feet to a minimum of 28 feet and objects within the clear zone were removed or relocated. Additionally, new guardrail has been installed on a significant amount of unprotected slopes that drop hundreds of feet from the roadway.
Project improvements included new culverts, fencing, and retaining walls as well as improvements to the intersection with Hogeye Hollow Road. The existing road surface was "recycled in place" by a full depth reclamation and paved with asphalt concrete-surfaced pavement (ACP).
Rose Gulch Road
Type | FA Construction Status | Construction, Nearly Complete Funding | $472,500 from RAP with matching Federal Aid
The .38 mile stretch of Columbia County's Rose Gulch Road crossed a railroad and connects portions of Columbia County to Highway 12. The road is a minor collector that provides access to the county's only commercial rock crushing business.
The old bridge was posted for single lane travel and loaded trucks were required to stay under 5 MPH so weight limits did not have to be enforced. The temporary solution allowed the commercial rock business to continue operating while the county designed and constructed the replacement bridge.
The Vernon Smith Bridge had a Federal Highway Administration sufficiency rating of 21.03 on a scale of 0-100 and was structurally deficient, requiring replacement. This Federal Aid project replaced the existing bridge spanning the Touchet River and the approach roadway. The new bridge is a single span, pre-stressed concrete structure that increased the width from 19 feet wide to 32 feet wide (2 12' lanes with 4' shoulders) with new guardrails at the bridge ends to meet current standards. The vertical alignment was designed based on hydraulic modeling and now fully spans the river.
Lower Waitsburg Road
Type | 3R Construction Status | Construction | Funding | $2.3 Million from RAP
Lower Waitsburg Road is one of two roads in Walla Walla County that provide access to Lyons Ferry Marina and Lyons Ferry State Park from the city of Walla Walla. The 2 mile stretch serves as a major grain route to Highway 12 from the central part of the county, is heavily used by cyclists and has a history of fatality collisions.
To improve safety, the horizontal and vertical geometry requires corrections to substandard curves with realignment needed on 39% of the road. The road width will be increased from 24 feet to 32 feet (11 foot lanes with 5 foot shoulders). The substandard guardrails and culverts will also be upgraded and the clear zone will have utility poles and trees removed for increased sight distance.
Steep "cut and fill" slopes exist along a significant amount of the project area with cut banks and farming activities sloughing dirt onto the gravel shoulders, resulting in soft shoulders during winter months. The slopes will be flattened and a clear zone provided. The road's bituminous surface treatment (BST will be replaced with 0.25 feet of hot mix asphalt (HMA) and 1 foot of crushed surfacing, with delineation provided.
Pictured: CRAB Chair Rob Coffman, Board Member Al French, Board Member Doug McCormick, PE; Board Member Grant Morgan, PE Board Member Art Swannack; Executive Director Jane Wall; Deputy Director Drew Woods, PE; Executive Assistant Jason Bergquist; Communications Director Jacque Netzer; Grant Programs Manager Steve Johnson, PE; IT Security Engineer Scott Campbell; Walla Walla County Interim Public Works Director Dan Mack, Public Works Tech IV Joy Bader, Project Drafter and Inspector Jennifer Chapman, and WSACE Managing Director Axel Swanson.
