$100M road makeover to begin soon in Pasco’s Broadmoor area. What to expect
Tri-Cities commuters can expect to start seeing major changes at one of the area’s most congested stretches of road next year.
Financing is in place, and bids are set to begin soon, on two related major projects in Pasco. Work could begin as soon as next spring.
The first of the two projects will be improvements to the Broadmoor Boulevard and I-182 interchange. That’s being paid for by a mix of city and state funding.
Shortly after that begins, major improvements will start taking place to ready the area for the 700-acre Broadmoor Development, in the undeveloped land to the west of Broadmoor Boulevard.
Commuters will first see improvements happening along Broadmoor north of the interchange, before two major roadways are cut across into the forthcoming development.
The financing for the roads in and around the development was approved at the end of October under a Tax Increment Financing plan, of TIF, between the developer and the city.
That means the developer will take out a $40 million bond to pay for roadwork and infrastructure, to be repaid using offsets from property tax.
There are three major components to the work: The 182 Interchange, Broadmoor traffic improvements and interior roads for the Broadmoor development.
To understand why these projects are being taken on at the same time, you have to take a look at what the developer hopes to have built by 2030.
What’s going in there?
The 700-acre development is expected to increase the land’s current value of $30 million up to $2 billion within 20 years.
The Broadmoor development will be the centerpiece of a west Pasco expansion that will see up to 14,000 new rooftops added over the coming decades.
If the dream of a new Costco does come to fruition, this road work will pave the way. It would be in one of the large parcels reserved for a big box retailer on the Sandifur Parkway extension.
The wholesaler likely won’t make a decision until the infrastructure in the area is complete, but the developer is hopeful. They’re also hoping to finally rope Trader Joe’s into bringing their first store to the Tri-Cities.
If they do manage to snag Trader Joe’s, it won’t be for a lack of trying. Many developers have tried to bring the coveted grocer to the Tri-Cities, but none have been successful yet.
Most recently developers working on projects at Osprey Pointe in Pasco and the Columbia Center mall have approached the company, but come up short of getting the elusive grocer to commit.
There is expected to be about 750,000-square feet of total space for retail in the development. To put that in perspective, Vintner Square off of Queensgate Drive in Richland has about 340,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, according to the developer.
If you add in the area on the other side of Duportail Street with Wal-Mart and Home Depot, you would get an area of about 120-acres, according to the Benton County Property Assessor’s Office.
That is just smaller than the 156 acres set aside for commercial and retail in the Broadmoor development, with enough room spare room to add an extra Wal-Mart Supercenter and Target.
There also will be 190 acres of housing, with 87 acres on the north end near Dent Road set aside for single family homes. Other developers are already working on subdivisions on the north side of Burns, and have plans for more to the west of the Broadmoor development.
Another 220 acres will eventually become single family homes after the rest of the project is completed, in the area that runs along Harris Road and is currently a gravel pit. It will first be used for the dirt work for the rest of the project.
The development also will include 103 acres of multifamily homes and 105-acres of mixed-use buildings bordering the retail and commercial area.
Already in the works along Burns Road are apartment complexes and a 55 and older community. The mixed-use area is expected to include some live-work buildings, as well as medical clinics.
Broadmoor/182 interchange
The city is working hard to ensure the development doesn’t become a traffic nightmare.
The first step toward that goal is a complete revamp of the Interstate 182 and Broadmoor Boulevard/Road 100 interchange. Pasco Public Works Director Steve Worley told the Herald the improvements to the interchange are likely to cost about $21 million. That’s significantly cheaper than initial planning level cost estimates that came in around $40 million.
After more than a year of community input, they now have a list of “preferred alternatives” to the current design and should be sending it out for bids once design work is done. The work will be done over several phases. There could still be some tweaks to the designs before they are sent out to bid. Worley expects to see those bids go out early next year.
Phase 1a: Beginning at the south side of the intersection, the first major change will be replacing the traffic signals with a roundabout. This will help reduce accidents and keep traffic flowing, according to planning documents. A deceleration lane will be added before the exits as well.
The eastbound off-ramp will not be removed, it will just shift to use for southbound exits. For northbound exits the off-ramp will go into a loop on the far side of the intersection, allowing for more vehicles to queue, and keep traffic flowing better than it currently does when it backs up at the exit.
The roundabout at the eastbound ramp could reduce crashes by 35% and severe wrecks by 50%, according to the presentation documents.
The city will also temporarily restripe the lanes across the bridge to allow for better pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Worley said the plan right now is for traffic to shift to the east on the bridge, with markers put into place to designate a new lane for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Phase 1b: Installation of a new multi-use pathway for bicycles and pedestrians to cross over I-182 without having to compete with traffic or the roundabouts. Worley said the pathway will connect with the roundabouts, and split bicycle and pedestrian traffic off into the multi-use bridge, removing the current need for those commuters to compete with vehicle traffic.
Worley noted that the city is still seeking state funding for this portion, and encouraged those interested to reach out to their state lawmakers to show support.
Phase 2: Removal of traffic signals and installation of a roundabout on the north side of the interchange for westbound I-182 traffic.
Phase 3: This phase has been reserved for tackling congestion and capacity issues for westbound traffic entering and leaving the interstate. It will likely be evaluated once the other improvements are complete. These improvement possibilities could bring the total price of the roadwork up from the current $21 million estimate.
Further improvements designed to ease congestion on Broadmoor Boulevard north of the interchange will take place as part of the Tax Increment Financing funded portion of the development.
Those include additional lanes to facilitate traffic going west to the new development. These improvements will run all the way north to the intersection of Broadmoor and Burns Road.
The traffic flow improvements on Broadmoor are likely to begin just a few months after the interchange project kicks off.
Harris Road
The next major change will come just north of the I-182 interchange. Harris Road currently makes a sharp right toward Broadmoor, which has caused some congestion and safety issues with drivers attempting to cross traffic to travel north on Broadmoor.
That intersection will be eliminated as part of the Broadmoor TIF package.
Instead where Harris begins to curve, which is roughly parallel to where the westbound on-ramp meets the highway, Harris will be rerouted completely to the north. It will eventually run between subdivisions and housing coming in at the north end of the Broadmoor development, ending at Burns Road.
For now, plans have Harris ending where it will intersect with an extension of Buckingham Drive.
Buckingham will also serve as the northern dividing line between the large retail and commercial area and the majority of the housing. The retail will border Buckingham to the south, and housing communities will go in north of it.
There are several plots set for mixed use southwest of the retail and commercial area, but apartment complexes and subdivisions will go in largely to the north along Burns Road.
Harris will also intersect with a new road that will serve as the western border of the commercial portion of the development. To find this new road, dubbed Road 108, imagine a line running north to south half a mile east of the intersection of Burns and Dent Road.
Sandifur Parkway
New traffic signals will be installed at Sandifur and Broadmoor and at Buckingham and Broadmoor, as both will be extended into the Broadmoor development.
Sandifur will see the heaviest flow of traffic into the development, with major big box retail stores and an outdoor mall-type shopping area set to line the road.
Between the new northern leg of Harris Road and the new Road 108, a third north to south road will go in. This one is called Road 105. It will also run from Harris to Burns. There will also be one more east to west road just south of Sandifur. It will end at Road 108 to the west and the northern extension of Harris to the East.
The TIF project will pay for the Broadmoor Boulevard improvements, the extensions of Sandifur and Buckingham and portions of Harris and Road 105 between Sandifur and Buckingham.
Road 108 from Harris to Sandifur, which will mark the west end of the retail and commercial portion, will be paid for by the developer during the first phase of major construction.
After that, as businesses and housing comes in, the developer will build out the rest of the interior roads in the 700-acre development. They’re expected to spend more than $70 million on roadways between the TIF and developer financing.
In all, over the next two to three years, nearly $100 million worth of road improvements will be made in the area.
This story was originally published November 20, 2022 at 11:44 AM.
