Road to Ice Harbor Dam to get $11M makeover

The Washington Department of Transportation launched an $11 million project to tame a notoriously dangerous stretch of rural highway near Burbank.

Scarsella Brothers of Seattle is building a new bridge to carry Highway 124 over the Union Pacific Railroad, which crosses the two-lane highway about five miles east of Burbank.

It also will move Monument Drive, which parallels the railroad tracks, so that it hits the highway farther west of the current intersection.

The new bridge eliminates a dangerous railroad crossing and keeps trains and vehicles safely at a distance.

Realigning Monument Drive will make it easier for drivers to see the intersection and vehicles pulling out onto Highway 124.

Mike Adams, an engineer for the state, said Monument Drive is particularly difficult to see for westbound drivers headed toward Burbank in Walla Walla County.

Adams said Monument Drive traffic could be routed onto temporary gravel roads, but should not seriously disrupt traffic. The contractor and railroad plan to collaborate when the girders for the overpass are installed.

Adams said the bridge was designed to accommodate an additional set of railroad tracks. BNSF has alerted the state that it intends to run more trains on the line, which carries freight and other trains roughly north-south between Oregon and Eastern Washington.

The federal Railroad Administration accident database indicates no serious train-vehicle collisions at the Burbank crossing.

But Monument Drive is a famously dangerous intersection, according to state officials and local drivers.

A Pasco man was injured there just over a week ago when a pickup turned in front of his vehicle. The pickup was knocked on its side, and both drivers were taken to area hospitals.

In a 2013 incident, the Tri-City Herald reported that four people were hurt in an evening wreck when a Burbank woman turned left into the path of another vehicle at the intersection.

According to a Washington State Environmental Policy Act notice, Scarsella expects to excavate more than 352,000 cubic yards of dirt from non-agricultural property near the construction site to build the bridge ramps.

Work should be finished by October.

This story was originally published March 27, 2017 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Road to Ice Harbor Dam to get $11M makeover."