Hanford workers should plan for delays as work starts on new roundabout near Richland

Construction started Monday on a new roundabout on Highway 240 near Richland to help with congestion during the Hanford site commute.

But in the meantime, Hanford employees and others using what’s sometimes called the Hanford Highway can expect delays five days a week for much of the day.

The Department of Energy has reminded Hanford workers that speeding citations in roadway construction areas are assessed twice the penalty as the same infraction elsewhere and that the penalty may not be waived, reduced or suspended under Washington state law.

The roundabout will be at Highway 225 coming in from the south and Hanford Route 10 on the nuclear reservation intersecting with Highway 240 from the north. It is about a mile outside Richland near the Wanawish/Horn Rapids Dam on the Yakima River.

During the morning and early evening Hanford commute, it can be difficult for vehicles on Highway 225 and Route 10 to enter or cross Highway 240, according to the Washington state Department of Transportation.

The roundabout should help with that and also could improve safety in an area known for steady, fast-moving streams of traffic as workers commute to and from the nuclear reservation, said Jackie Ramirez, spokesman for the WSDOT.

On average about 9,000 vehicles travel through the intersection daily.

During both the morning and early afternoon Hanford commute, about 900 vehicles cross the intersection on Highway 240 in both directions, with Route 10 having about 400 vehicles and Highway 225 having about 300 vehicles.

Construction is planned weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to avoid delaying Hanford traffic at peak times as much as possible, she said.

Many Hanford workers are on a schedule of 10-hour workdays Monday through Thursday and could be traveling to work before 7 a.m. and leaving work later than 3:30 p.m.

Highway 240 has single lanes in both directions, and construction will require reducing the highway to only one lane at times.

Apollo, which has the contract for the construction project, will reduce speed in the work zone to 40 mph.

An automated flagger device will be used to alternate traffic in each direction when the highway is reduced to a single lane.

WSDOT expects work to be completed by the end of June.

This story was originally published April 22, 2023 at 5:00 AM.