Work to start next week on Highway 195 project

Major work to rebuild South Main Street in Colfax is expected to begin in the middle of next week. Construction crews were slated to begin relocating utility fixtures as early as last Wednesday.

Ryan Vincent, an engineer with the state Department of Transportation’s Spokane office, said crews from lead contractor Central Washington Asphalt, Inc., are scheduled to work through Sept. 5 on an eight -mile project to repave Highway 195 from the south end of downtown Colfax to the Babbit Road intersection.

Vincent said crews should spend about 10 working days grinding off the road surface on the project.

Traffic flow will be cut from four lanes to two in Colfax while crews work on alternate sides of the highway. Flaggers will be used to help emergency vehicles access Whitman Hospital and Medical Center. Patients are urged to leave early for appointments at the hospital in case of construction delays.

Central Washington will plane off nearly one-third of a foot of pavement on 195 south of Colfax. In Colfax, crews will remove two feet of road and install new base material before laying the new pavement.

Along with the new pavement, the project will include rumble strips, raised guard rails, pavement markings, guideposts and permanent signing. The Colfax section will also include new concrete sidewalk ramps.

It will not include a traffic lane “bulb out” on the northbound side of Main Street just south of the Thorn Street intersection.

City Administrator Carl Thompson told the city council July 16 night that he had advised Harold White, DOT engineer at the regional office in Spokane, that the city preferred not to have the bulb installed.

The proposal was introduced at the prior council session. White suggested the bulb out, which would block off what is now designated as a “right turn only” lane as a means of increasing safety at the intersection.

The bulb out would have been an addition to the construction project which has been scheduled to get underway next week. The Colfax end of the project calls for a rebuild of Main Street (Highway 195) and re-surfacing the rest of the Highway to Babbitt Road.

Thompson said after Monday’s meeting that the unused railroad crossing just south of the Cooper Street intersection will likely be removed as a part of the project. Fate of the crossing came under review because of its location within the first 100 yards of the project.