Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Construction on the West Whitman Street project in Palouse is scheduled to start Monday.
The estimated 90-day work schedule will include a 550-foot section of street and railroad tracks – with a new drainage system, sidewalks, curb, gutter and lighting.
One potential barrier of complicating rail traffic has been alleviated by a coincidence. Earlier this year, ice damaged a railroad bridge near Potlatch on the Washington and Idaho Railway, causing a halt in train traffic.
“At least through mid-June the contractors can just have at it,” said Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove.
In 2008, for the first phase of the project on East Whitman Street, 14 days were allowed for railroad shutdown. The work was done in 13.
Whitman Street crosses Palouse at Highway 27 where Banner Bank is located on one side with Kramer Funeral Home across the street.
The state highway will not have to be blocked during construction.
The city will ask the three property owners along the stretch to park cars away from the site.
A pre-construction meeting was in Palouse May 10 at city hall. Attending were Munir Daud, city engineer; M.L. Albright & Sons of Lewiston, contractor, and Bob Westby of Washington State Department of Transportation, among others.
“Hopefully we'll finish before harvest,” said Daud.
The first task will be to remove the tracks and excavate a foot off of the existing road.
Leading up to construction, Washington State Department of Transportation completed its railroad engineering in February for the project and approved the overall street revitalization plan.
A bid deadline of March 29 was set.
Also, the Palouse City Council voted Feb. 14 to approve an additional $20,000 expenditure to simultaneously replace old water pipes on West Whitman.
The winning bid was $548,536.08.
A total of 415 feet of old, asbestos cement pipes will be replaced on the north side of the road.
The pipe money will come from the city's water capital improvements account.
In 2015, the Washington state legislature pledged $280,000 for West Whitman in Palouse as part of a $16 billion transportation package. The money will pay for the railroad work to be done at the same time as the street work.
In November 2015, the project was approved for a grant through the Transportation Improvement Board. The $370,500 approval followed the denial of Palouse's application in 2014.
WSDOT had already pledged $30,000 to the proposed project.
The TIB grant, state transportation money, DOT money and $42,000 from the city of Palouse's arterial streets fund is expected to cover all costs.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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