[Vision2020] Trip from Moscow to Pullman to Become Life in theFour-Lane

[Linda Pall]

Dear Tom and Visionaries,

I wish I could see the proposed 270 construction as a great improvement on the Moscow-Pullman highway but I cannot. The original design which was cut back drasticly because of budget realignments was far better, providing a median to prevent cross traffic collisions and multiple entries along the highway as well as to provide a more reasonable construction plan (doing two lanes at a time, allowing traffic to use the 'old' two lane configuration while the 'new' pair is being constructed, with the median separation, while also providing some landscaping that would benefit the roadway).

It is true that the present road is desperately in need of improvement. I just wish that the  improved design would follow through as originally proposed because I believe that four lanes with a turn lane at the center and no physical barriers will not provide the advertised safety but will provide the advertised speeding and passing.

All the best, I hope,

Linda Pall

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tom Hansen 
  To: Moscow Vision 2020 
  Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 6:01 AM
  Subject: [Vision2020] Trip from Moscow to Pullman to Become Life in theFour-Lane


  From today's (January 30, 2006) Spokesman review -

   

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  Trip from Moscow to Pullman to become life in the four-lane 

   

  Amy Cannata

  Staff writer

  January 30, 2006

   

  The drive between Moscow, Idaho, and Pullman is about to get an overhaul more than a decade in the making.

   

  The Washington state Department of Transportation will begin work this year on a six-mile-long state Highway 270 project that will boost the two-lane road to four lanes with a center turn lane and rumble strips.

   

  The widening work will be done between Pullman and the Idaho border this year and next.

   

  Highway 270 is the main road connecting Pullman, home of Washington State University, and Moscow, site of the University of Idaho. It has been the scene of some deadly wrecks, including a 2001 collision in which three WSU students were killed.

   

  While the main goal of the widening project is to increase traffic capacity, it will have the added benefit of improving safety, said Transportation Department spokesman Al Gilson.

   

  "The most horrific accidents come from improper passing," he said.

   

  That was the case in the 2001 collision. Fred Russell, the WSU student accused of causing that crash while driving drunk, fled to Ireland. He's now awaiting a decision on whether he will be extradited to stand trial in Whitman County.

   

  With an additional lane in each direction, passing accidents should decrease, Gilson said.

   

  It has taken a few fits and starts to get to this point. After the state allocated funding under its 2003 nickel gas tax increase, it quickly became clear that there wasn't enough money to fund a proposal for a divided four-lane highway with frontage roads.

   

  The new plan without frontage roads and with the center turning lane rather than a median fits within the state's $30 million budget.

   

  Drivers will be able to use the highway while it's under construction.

   

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  Suddenly that trip to and from Pullman is a bit more driver-friendly.

   

  Take care, Moscow.

   

  Tom Hansen

  Moscow, Idaho

   

  "If not us, who?
  If not now, when?"

  - Unknown

   



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