County Commissioners amend Six-Year transportation plan

The Adams County Board of Commissioners approved an amendemnt to the county’s 2018-2023 Six-Year Transportation Improvement Plan at the April 23 meeting.

One of the amendments to the plan, which was adopted on Dec. 11, 2017, was the addition of the Odessa Groundwater Replacement East Low Expansion County Bridge repair project.

During the public hearing for the amendments, County Engineer Scott Yaeger explained the planning funds will be through the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Local Empowerment for Accelerating Projects (LEAP) program.

He will issue a request for qualifications for a consultant on the preliminary design and cost estimate for the project.

The work will consist of a widening and resurfacing a portion of road from Lind-Hatton Road to Lauer Road. The cost of the project is $100,000 and the project is slated to be completed in 2018.

The second amendment to the plan was to change the funding status for Priority No. 9, the Lind-Hatton/Damon Road Overlay project, from “proposed” to “secured.”

The change resulted in construction year for the project to move from 2022 to 2018.

Public Works Director Todd O’Brien said there was deobligation of federal funds after the Johnson Road project, which consisted of reconstruction 3.99 miles of Johnson Road from the county line to Highway 26, came in under budget.

He said this made federal service and transportation funds available for Public Works to complete the overlay and pavement work for the road.

The scope of the project, consisting of overlaying a .93 mile portion of roadway from Lind-Hatton Road to Damon Road, will not change.