Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
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closeTuesday, Nov. 17, 2009
Kennewick to OK Steptoe Street extension funding
By Pratik Joshi, Herald staff writer
The Kennewick City Council plans to approve today an agreement for using more than $3.2 million in federal money to help extend Steptoe Street south of Gage Boulevard.
The $3.74 million project, a joint venture between Kennewick and Richland, will build a new road from Gage Boulevard to Center Parkway in its first phase.
The new 1.1-mile, four-lane road will help reroute traffic and ease congestion on Leslie Road and Columbia Center Boulevard, said Steve Plummer, project engineer for the city of Kennewick. Construction is expected to start next spring and finish in the fall, he said.
It would include construction of curbs and gutters, sidewalk, storm drains, landscaping with irrigation, lights and signals. As part of the project, two masonry block walls that will run on both the sides of the road past existing homes will be built as a noise barrier, Plummer said.
The project's second phase will include extending a road south under the railroad tracks to connect Steptoe Street to Clearwater Avenue. The city is working out issues with BNSF Railway Co., he said.
"We're pursuing it as rapidly as we can," Plummer said. The city is looking for additional money for that work.
A preliminary estimate by planners last year put the cost of the second phase at about $8.5 million.
The third phase, which is in the design stage, is to include reconstruction of Clodfelter Road from Clearwater to 10th Avenue, Plummer said.
-- Pratik Joshi: 582-1541; pjoshi@tricityherald.com
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