After months of undercover effort I have news from our Tri-City transportation projects for those who are wondering, “What the heck is going on?” The recent article published in the Herald (September 25, 2006) failed to mention several root causes of the apparent slowdowns in the 240 Project and the Stevens Drive Project in North Richland.
First, the stalled Highway 240 Project is set to make good progress starting in October and November. The three workers assigned to this project are now all back from vacation. The big holdup was and still is, of course, the “Big Dig” under the roadway near the Yakima River. Unfortunately, this tunnel requires an inspection from Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts since there may be ceiling panels involved according to our confidential sources. Although these are smaller panels than appear in Boston’s Big Dig, nevertheless, they may let loose at any time if not securely fastened and Gov. Romney is the nation’s expert on this and his schedule is pretty tight. But, the good news is that by the end of October they should be able to resume work on the tunnel and they expect to complete it by April next year. Meanwhile the crew will keep busy driving the water truck up and down the new portion of freeway to help keep it clean. “You’d be surprised how dirty things get out here if you just let them lie around,” states one worker. “We will move the large paving machines from time to time to reduce the chance that they will be stolen. Plus, we plan to move that Porta-Potty one of these days so we can clean under it.”
The work at Stevens Drive in north Richland has been held up for more than a month waiting for lane painting and completion because the city of Richland lost the drawings for the new lane diagrams. The true story is that the City Hall cat, affectionately called “Old Bomber” for his unfortunate toilet habits, made off with the drawings and no one can locate them. The mayor feels that “any day now we will get Old Bomber to tell us where he hid them.” When asked about progress on Stevens Drive and George Washington Way the mayor confessed, “We only have 6 of the orange construction vests and so we can only send 6 workers out there each day. We wish we could do more but we can’t. You can’t work on the road crew without an orange vest.” The resulting traffic congestion doesn’t faze the mayor one bit. “As I said in my earlier article to the Herald, traffic congestion is a good thing, it signifies progress and growth. Without traffic delays and congestion Richland would be a dead city. People mistakenly think that congestion is bad and should be prevented or fixed somehow, but my position is that it is a good thing for our city. I’m in favor of it. Nothing stirs my blood more than looking at a section of highway or roadway and seeing in my mind where a new traffic light would just crimp down on that traffic flow and signify progress and growth. I love traffic lights. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing a new traffic light going up. My personal goal is that every intersection in Richland should have a traffic light. Just a few weeks ago at Stevens Drive we actually had 2 sets of signals in place. One old set and one newer set going up side by side. I used to go there after work just to relax and look at the new lights right there with the old lights. Its beautiful. Beautiful. In fact, right now the city is just about perfect. The barricade on Jadwin Avenue is up and running well, our entire stock of orange traffic cones is deployed, and our 6 vests are out there every day putting up new traffic lights. I can’t imagine how things could be better than they are now. Just can’t.”
