Letter: Road to Hanford 200 East needs to be expanded

DOE needs to either expand the road going to Hanford 200 East to a four-lane road, or stagger start and stop times between the 200 East contractors and Bechtel.

When everyone went to the same start time as the vit plant, it wasn’t a huge deal because everyone was manned down. Bechtel was figuring out the LAW direct feed and the tank farms weren’t doing waste transfers. But as the vit plant continues to man up for the direct feed, the traffic situation is getting completely out of hand, and quite frankly it’s a safety hazard, especially with winter right around the corner.

If there is just a minor fender bender at the base of the hill beyond the barricade, it can back traffic up all the way to the turnoff for the Columbia Generating Station. If there is an influx of cars on the road, it can turn that two-lane road into a 30 mph trek, and that makes it nearly impossible to find the balance between leaving too early and too late.

So I would recommend that start and stop times become more staggered to alleviate congestion and then seriously consider making that a four-lane road.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 4:54 AM with the headline "Letter: Road to Hanford 200 East needs to be expanded."