Uniontown feels impact as stimulus project begins on Highway 195

Flaggers unload signs to block off Uniontown’s main drag.

The state Department of Transportation project to repave eight miles of Highway 195 from Colton south to the Idaho state line is now in full swing.

Crews Monday began the first phase, 10 days work through Uniontown. Crews should be wrapping up in the town by May 26.

The second phase of the construction will focus on resurfacing the highway between Colton to Uniontown and from Uniontown to the Idaho/Washington border.

The DOT expects the total project will take two months to complete.

Traffic through Uniontown is down to one lane, with flaggers directing highway traffic 24 hours a day.

An estimated 5,000 vehicles a day use the highway through Uniontown, said Uniontown City Clerk Cheryl Waller.

Many of the 340 residents of Uniontown are having trouble making their way home with all but a few cross streets blocked, according to Waller.

“So far, I’ve had people call here asking, ‘How to get here, how do you get around that?’ said Waller. “You don’t really.”

Five Uniontown stores – the Sage Bakery and four antique shops- have shut down because customers have nowhere to park.

Traffic delays of up to 15 minutes are expected on either side of Uniontown.

Crews are digging down at least two feet to the foundation at Uniontown, because the highway foundation was poorly built and old, said Jeremy Walkup, project manager for Poe Asphalt.

“Old roads aren’t designed to hold what we load on them,” Walkup said.

DOT spokesman Al Gilson of Spokane said the main goal is to stabilize the base of the highway, eliminate the patchwork of pothole fills and prevent more.

Work on the rest of the highway will be a resurfacing, which involves ripping off the top layer of asphalt and replacing it.

Poe Asphalt out of Pullman won the bid for the $2 million total project. The DOT is paying for the project from leftover federal stimulus dollars granted to the DOT.

Gilson said the project is standard maintenance made possible because of the boost of stimulus dollars.

Waller said residents driving to and from town still have to wait in the backed up lines of traffic like everyone else.

With most cross streets in Uniontown blocked off, Waller said residents living on the west side of town are now using a long, hilly gravel road, High Street, to get in and out of their neighborhood.

The obscure, hilly route can appear scary at night to those not familiar with the route.

She added the gravel road wasn’t built for heavy traffic and houses along that road are now seeing more dust as the west side of Uniontown drives past.

Despite parking problems, Uniontown Mini-Mart has stayed open for business, largely to serve constructions workers for the highway project and the nearby construction on the city’s lagoons.