Serving Whitman County since 1877
Students begin returning to Washington State University this weekend, and construction on Highway 195 from Colfax south toward Pullman can be expected to slow their migration back to campus.
“I think we’re just going to be messed up for rush week and the early kids,” Sgt. Brad Hudson of the Washington State Patrol’s Colfax detachment.
Crews from Central Washington Asphalt at Moses Lake have been on the job for the past two weeks for the project which included traffic delays as work advanced on more than eight miles of the project between Colfax and Pullman.
Motorists have logged informal reports of delays of up to a half-hour.
“It’s nice to get a new road, but it’ll be even nicer when it’s done,” said Mayor Todd Vanek.
Vanek and Police Chief Rick McNannay met with WSU officials Tuesday to discuss how the construction could impact the influx of students. Those officials told Vanek to expect the heaviest loads of traffic next weekend, though freshman and greek students will be hitting town as soon as tomorrow.
“We’re thinking this weekend’s big load should hit late Friday afternoon,” said Vanek.
With few options, students returning to Pullman could add to those waits.
“Maybe I should set up a Kool-Aid or a lemonade stand or something,” said Kathy Clark, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.
Colfax leaders are pulling out all the stops to draw the students’ attention to the city they will likely be spending more time in.
“It would be nice if they would stop and visit, since they’re going to be stopped anyway,” Clark commented.
Mayor Vanek is planning to hang WSU flags along Main Street and is borrowing a readerboard from the university to welcome returning students to Colfax.
“Because there’s construction and they might have a little extra time in town, maybe they’ll stop and look around a bit,” said Mayor Vanek.
Options are limited for bypassing Colfax, and state highway officials say students who are not familiar with the area’s highway grid have no choice but to head through Colfax.
“I just don’t have the manpower to have troopers standing out there pointing them which way to go,” said Hudson, who said his longest wait through the construction zone has been “five minutes, maybe at the most.”
Many students from the west side of the state use Colfax Airport Road to bypass downtown Colfax. As of now, that route puts them on south Main right in the construction zone where traffic must wait for flaggers to allow them onto the highway. Hudson worried that could cause a long line of cars backed up hospital hill.
A warning sign north of Rosalia advises southbound drivers to tune in their radios to an AM broadcast frequency for information on the road ahead. Students southbound from Spokane have the option of highways 271 and 27 route into north Pullman via Oakesdale, Garfield, and Palouse.
“But our largest contingent definitely comes down 26,” said Sgt. Hudson.
State crews are also currently limiting traffic on Highway 271 for chip-sealing from Rosalia to south of Oakesdale.
Al Gilson, spokesman for the DOT’s office in Spokane, said the agency is not posting a similar warning sign on 26, noting the lack of options for getting traffic around Colfax.
“We’re not going to direct them onto county roads for a 15, 20-minute delay,” Gilson said.
Sgt. Hudson noted the construction zone on Highway 195 south of Colfax could complicate harvest for farmers and truckers hauling loads of grain.
Moving combines might be tricky he said, but the main concern is having harvest trucks enter the road without construction crews knowing. He said officials are planning to communicate to farmers along the road to wait until they can safely enter the line behind pilot cars.
One alternative for students eastbound on Highway 26 calls for them to drive past their favorite shortcut, the Airport Road bypass, and continue to the twin bridge entrance at north Colfax. They can head south on Main Street, left onto Highway 272 and head east to the Clear Creek Road and then cut over to Highway 27 and continue south to north Pullman.
Sgt. Hudson noted WSU football traffic, an annual fall traffic concern on the Palouse, isn’t expected to hit locally until after the Highway 195 project wraps up. The first home football game will be Sept. 8 with the EWU Eagles as guest. The matchup is expected to bring a large contingent of fans from both schools for the opener in the newly remodeled Martin Stadium.
The next home game will be Sept. 22 with Colorado here for WSU homecoming.
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