Date:  Friday, April 25, 2008

Contact: Jeff Adamson, North Central Region Communications Manager, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2815, (509) 669-8778 Cell. E-mail: adamsoj@wsdot.wa.gov
Wick Mc Curdy, North Central Region Special Projects Engineer, Wenatchee (509) 667-3067, (509) 421-1288 Cell. E-Mail: mccurdw@wsdot.wa.gov

WENATCHEE – Construction begins on a new left turn lane on SR 24, three miles south of Othello at Atkinson Road on Wednesday, April 30th. There have been six rear end accidents over the past six years involving vehicles turning off the highway onto Atkinson. WSDOT North Central Region Traffic Engineer, Jennene Ring, said, “The legislature added $2.5 million to a special low-cost safety enhancement program. We submitted seven projects and this is one of three that got funded.”

Central Washington Asphalt, Inc. was the low bidder at $48,000 to widen the highway for the new turning lane and to install two new luminaires to improve visibility at night. The work will take less than three weeks to complete. That section of roadway is scheduled to be paved later in May as part of the North Central Region 2008 Chip Seal Project: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Regions/NorthCentral/projects/NCRSeal2008/

Motorists can expect short delays with single lane, flagger controlled, traffic through the work zone from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, during construction. The speed limit at the intersection is 60 mph. Average daily traffic is 3,800 vehicles; 12% of those are trucks.
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