Editor's Note: This editorial originally ran May 27, 2006, about 10 years ago. Will it take 27 years to get the highway to Lewiston upgraded to four lanes all the way, as it did to widen the Pullman-Moscow highway?
Somebody give us a pinch.
Really, we must be dreaming. That's the only way to explain all the work along the side of the Pullman-Moscow highway. It almost looks like they're getting ready to widen the road.
What's that? They've even sent the project out to bid?
It can't be! It's only been, well, more than a decade since the widening of the highway became a priority, and talk of such a project has been on the drawing board even longer.
"I've been hearing about widening that highway since the day I arrived," Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson said this week. "And I've been here 27 years."
So have many others, so we're bound to be more than a little excited now that construction actually appears ready to begin. It's been a long wait, but the project is set to start in mid-June and carry forward through 2007. Along the way, we're sure there will be some moments of frustration.
"It's going to be very busy," said Al Gilson, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Traffic will be bogged down a bit as some 14,000 cars a day funnel their way through the construction zone. Dirt will be pushed around, and flaggers likely will become as familiar to some as the person at the next desk. Patience will be one of those golden virtues throughout the project, but patience has been a hallmark of this project since its inception.
The end result will be a four-lane highway with a turning lane in the middle. It's not the ideal project envisioned a few years back - before budget cuts and right-of-way costs pared it back to the current model. The widened highway, though, will provide a better connection between Pullman and Moscow and the thousands of people who travel back and forth each day.
We've waited a long time for this project and joined the chorus of local voices trumpeting the value of widening the highway. There's a good chance we'll have an opportunity to grumble a bit mid-project, right along with some others.
When the paint dries and the last rumble strip is laid, though, we expect a year's worth of frustration will have proved worth the extra travel time.
