‘It scares me.’ Richland’s grand plan to reroute +40K drivers a day on 2 streets
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- Richland plans $25M Downtown Loop project to convert key roads into one-ways.
- Business owners express concern about 18-month construction disrupting access.
- City pledges continuous street access and launches outreach to build support.
On a sidewalk outside the Uptown Shopping Center, business owners chatted, waiting for power to be restored on a sunny summer morning.
As they waited, the small group of antiques dealers and tanning salon employees shot the breeze about the daily challenges of running a business in the heart of Richland.
Garbage, homeless campers, rats and vandals who prowl cars and businesses were all hot topics.
But lately, there’s been a new addition to the water cooler talk: The Downtown Loop.
The Downtown Loop, aka “couplet,” is Richland’s ambitious plan to revitalize the central business district by converting two of Richland’s main arterials, George Washington Way and Jadwin Avenue, into one-way streets.
The city is going public now with its plan in a bid to build public support for the $25 million, 18-month project.
The Downtown Loop is in the final stages of design, with a projected start date of spring 2026. To date, Uptown owners report they’ve heard little more than what’s been shared on social media.
The “loop” will affect some homes and about 300 businesses in an area that includes not only the Uptown, but the Richland federal building, The Parkway shopping area and stores, hotels and restaurants west of Howard Amon Park.
George Washington Way, Jadwin Avenue and the bypass highway, are major commuting corridors used by tens of thousands of workers at some of the Tri-Cities largest employers, including the Hanford site and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
The lengthy conversion process has business owners leery that it will affect access and discourage customers. Too, they worry that in the long term, the unusual traffic scheme will create chaos for drivers.
Leery about traffic
“I think it is probably the dumbest thing I have ever heard of,” said Katie Spivey, who works in a tanning salon facing Jadwin Avenue in the Uptown.
Her boss didn’t want to be quoted, but nodded approvingly as Spivey identified traffic confusion as a top reason to object.
“People don’t even know how to use a roundabout,” she said.
Patina Antiques and Vintage Finds is a few doors away.
Owner Judy Leung has run her tiny store facing Jadwin for about a dozen years. Patina is popular with crafters, who rely on Leung’s genius at securing unique, small-scale items they buy for their projects.
Leung said her business relies on their fans as well as passing traffic.
Uptown is a paradise for business owners, with visitors who linger for hours, wooed in by ample parking and its quirky mix of dining options, shopping, services and more.
She’s waiting to hear more about the loop before she forms an opinion one way or another. But she worries 18 months of construction could alter the delicate balance between earning enough to stay in business, or not.
“This is my income. I have a little bit of Social Security, but this is it,” she said. If business is disrupted, it could force her to close.
“It scares me,” Leung said.
At the south end of the loop, where George Washington Way merges with Jadwin, the Richland outlet for the Graze sandwich shop is perched at the spot where traffic will split.
Owners Rebecca and John Lastoskie moved the restaurant four years ago from The Parkway to the west. They were, seeking greater visibility. The move paid off, John Lastoskie said.
“We didn’t know about (the loop) project when we signed the lease, ” he told the Tri-City Herald.
He thinks the loop will be good for business in the long run and will be happy to see fewer wrecks. There have been major wrecks near Graze moved to the neighborhood in 2021, including a 2022 triple fatality linked to racing.
Construction, however, is cause for concern.
“I’m certain it’s going to be terrible,” he said.
Reviving central Richland
The Downtown Loop is rooted in the city’s dream of reviving its central business district.
That includes promoting business and residential development and fostering connections to the city’s prized Columbia River shoreline dating to 2003.
George Washington Way, with its four traffic lanes and left-turn lane in the middle and heavy traffic volume has long hindered the dream.
The George Washington/Jadwin Avenue intersection was the Tri-Cities’ second busiest with nearly 41,000 vehicles passing by each day, respectively, according a 2024 traffic analysis by the Benton Franklin Council of Governments.
One only intersection was busier — Pasco’s Road 68 north of I-182 tallied nearly 50,000 vehicles per day.
In 2016, consultant Roger Brooks proposed narrowing George Washington Way to four lanes, likening the busy road to the “Great Wall of China.” The road served as a barrier that kept pedestrians from moving between central city businesses and the waterfront.
In 2020, the city’s elected leaders approved the concept of turning George Washington and Jadwin into a couplet, each carrying traffic in one direction.
“It’s a very large project impacting quite a large part of our downtown,” Carlo D’Allesandro, public works director, said at a recent city council session. ‘”The thing that keeps us up at night is trying to get widespread community support.”
Next steps
This month, Richland officials sent letters to owners of neighboring property the city intends to use for the project or during construction.
The city is also launching a public relations campaign that includes a website thedowntownloop.com
Residents can sign up for project notifications.
City officials say they have a dedicated system to communicate with the 300 or so businesses affected by the loop. Designs aren’t complete, but city leaders pledged that both streets will remain open and that preserving access to businesses is the top priority.
There will be an open house this fall or winter when plans are complete enough to share in public. The city expects to seek bids from contractors in January 2026, to award the contract to the winning bidder in February, and to break ground in the spring.
What is a couplet
A couplet is essentially two streets acting in unison — each carrying traffic in one direction.
George Washington and Jadwin together offer 10 lanes to motorists traveling north and south through the city.
The project will reduce the lane count to six — three north bound lanes on George Washington and three south bound ones on Jadwin.
The spot where the two merge near Columbia Point will serve as the southern anchor for the loop. Symons Street will serve as the northern one.
Symons will carry southbound traffic from George Washington to Jadwin along the northern edge of Uptown Shopping Center, turning it into a one-way extension of Jadwin.
The four “left over” lanes will get a new mission.
The loop includes dedicated bike paths that are physically separate from motorized traffic. Sidewalks will be wider. There will be more on-street parking as well as pedestrian crossings.
Who pays?
The project will cost about $25 million, with funds committed by local, state and federal agencies.
- $11.7 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets 4 All program. (December 2023, with revisions in 2025)
- $6 million in city funds via the capital improvement plan. (2021, 2023, 2025 and 2026)
- $3.5 million from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board. (December 2022)
- $2.5 million from the Benton Franklin Council of Governments. (August 2022 and December 2023)
- $1 million from the Washington State Department of Transportation. (January 2024)
- $47,000 from the Washington Department of Ecology’s Water Quality Program to design stormwater upgrades. (November 2024)
This story was originally published July 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.