Highway to return to normal

Final work on the Highway 195 project Monday included painting over the temporary lane markings, cleanup and removal of traffic signs and markers. The highway was returned to its normal mode in Colfax after the wrap-up work was completed by a small crew from Central Washington Asphalt.

However, work and a flag crew continued Tuesday on the southbound outside lane in the S curves.

The crew which was working in Colfax has now been assigned to work on a paving job along I-90 on Snoqualmie Pass, according to a report from the CWA office in Moses Lake.

Northstar traffic control crew members picked up their “Road Closed” signs at about 6 p.m. Monday.

Railroad fittings and rail segments which were removed from the now paved-over crossing have been placed between the rails.

Crews put down the last yards of the Highway 195 paving job on the south end of the Cooper Street Bridge at about 3 p.m. Saturday. Final paving work continued on the Thorn Street approach to the highway.

Work started Saturday before 6 a.m. on the final stretches of the eight-plus miles of repaving and the reconstruction of a segment of S. Main in Colfax. The early start Saturday involved preparing the northbound curb edge for the final application of asphalt. The northbound curb side and an adjoining lane received the final layers of asphalt Saturday.

Also included in the last day action was paving segments of the sidewalk gaps which had been left on both sides of the highway when the rails were removed for the S. Main crossing. The new pavement segments match up with pavement approaches to the former railroad crossing.

ROAD PROJECT ADDITIONS

Restoration of the walkways at the now-gone railroad crossing in Colfax and the rough surface of Highway 195 south of the designated end of the current project were two additions to the project with details now in the process of being ironed out.

Removal of the railroad left gaps in the walkways on both sides of the project. Tom Brash, DOT assistant engineers, said the railroad removal was done under an add-on to the state’s contract award to Central Washington Asphalt. Restoration of the walkways on each side of the highway was also negotiated as an add-on and completed Saturday with pavement.

The Central crews also extended the Highway 195 grinding and paving part of the job beyond the original Babbitt Road cutoff point. Brash explained that was accomplished by using maintenance funds to get the work done while the construction crew was in the area. He said the DOT maintenance crew pointed out they usually have to make an annual patch in the segment and suggested it be added to the present construction contract.

“What we did was actually a maintenance project but in a scale which was more extensive than what a maintenance crew could do,” Brash said.

He noted the problems with the highway surface there point to subsurface problems which will have to be confronted when Highway 195 again gets funding to continue the resurfacing south toward Pullman.

THEFT-ARSON TRIAL DATE SET

An Oct. 15 trial was slated for Jocelyn Elise Gates, 23, a suspect in the motor home theft from Pullman which was subsequently discovered burning along Highway 26 in the LaCrosse area. She pleaded not guilty last Friday in superior court to charges of burglary, theft and arson.

She was released on her own recognizance after being arrested June 20 on a warrant at her residence in the Yakima area. Another suspect in the case, Damon McCart, was not at the residence at the time deputies served the warrant. He has subsequently been arrested in Yakima on pending charges there, and Whitman County has placed a hold request with a warrant.

Gates and McCart are suspected of taking a 34-foot Damon Intruder motor home from the fenced storage lot along the Moscow/Pullman Highway.

According to the arrest report filed with the charges against Gates, they decided to set fire to the motor home after it became stuck while she was driving it along a frontage road in the LaCrosse area. She told officers she accidentally discharged a gun in the motor home and McCart decided to burn the gun in the stuck home to avoid a charge of illegal possession of a gun as a convicted felon, the report said.