Eye on traffic: Widen SR-28/281, says a mayor asking for federal funding
Apr. 13—ROCK ISLAND — Rock Island Mayor Randy Agnew is tired of the traffic on state Route 28. He would like to see the road, which links Wenatchee to Interstate 90 at George via state Route 281 and passes through his community, widened to four lanes.
"I've lived out here a good portion of my life," said Agnew, 60. "The traffic has increased a lot, and I've been pushing for this since I became mayor."
Agnew is asking Sen. Patty Murray to include a $1.2 billion appropriation to widen SR-28/281 as part of any federal highway appropriation or infrastructure funding measure this year.
Murray's office did not respond to the Columbia Basin Herald's request for comment.
According to the Washington State Department of Transportation's website, SR-28 from East Wenatchee to Quincy and then SR-281 south to I-90 is one of the busier routes in the region, with portions of the road — particularly near the potato and vegetable processing facilities on the west side of Quincy — showing average daily traffic of 14,000 vehicles per day in 2019, the most recent year for which the department posted data.
Rock Island itself saw nearly 10,000 vehicles per day in 2019.
It's more traffic than state Route 28/281 was intended to carry, Agnew said. The volume of traffic has made the drive to and from Wenatchee — one of a handful of significant urban areas across the United States not connected to the Interstate Highway System via a four-lane highway — difficult and unsafe.
"When they did the highway system in the '50s and '60s, urban areas of a certain population all had to be connected," Agnew said. "When Wenatchee hit that level, it never got hooked up. They never quite finished the job."
A lot of people commute from Wenatchee to jobs in the Columbia Basin, Agnew said, and that figure is only going to grow in the future.
"I think everybody who drives it would support this," he said.
Agnew has been soliciting support from cities, counties and port districts to support the funding request. At a recent meeting, the Quincy City Council unanimously approved a letter in support, noting the expansion of data centers and food processing in Quincy has increased traffic and congestion on the mostly two-lane highway.
Quincy City Administrator Pat Haley said the city would like any widening of state Route 28/281 to go through Quincy, where the two roads are already four lanes, rather than detouring around the city.
"I know that the Department of Transportation is going to pick their own route, but if they go through town, that's our preference," he said. "We don't want to lose that traffic that will stop and eat and buy and purchase gas."
According to Agnew, the cities of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee are joining to support the effort, as is Grant County and the Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority.
He said the time to act is now, given the federal government is busy spending and appropriating for all sorts of infrastructure projects and the state already owns most of the land needed to expand the road.
"The state Department of Transportation already has the right-of-way for most of the project," Agnew said. "Let's not wait until it's gone."
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
