Millwood Traffic Light Awaiting Spring Break

Wondering when those traffic signal lights at Liberty and Argonne will finally be up and running?

You’re not alone.

“The construction guys used to come in here in October and November, but not since,” said Jenni Allen, manager of the nearby Rocket Bakery. “They said they’d start again in the spring, whenever that is.”

Ask Mother Nature.

Millwood officials and contractors doing the job say the lights should be fired up no later than May 1, and sooner if the weather cooperates.

“It’ll be sometime in the spring, which could be a couple weeks away,” said Mike Kelly of Colvico, the Spokane electrical contracting firm doing the work.

Contractors put up the posts and hung the traffic signals last fall but still must dig up the asphalt and connect the lights to a power source. But they don’t want to dig up the street until it’s warm enough for new asphalt to dry properly.

Now, the signals are suspended above Argonne, with black plastic covering each lamp.

Drivers who haven’t seen them before sometimes give a perplexed look. They know red means stop and green means go, but what does a garbage bag mean?

Some people who saw the signals go up last fall and have been waiting for them to be turned on have called Millwood’s town hall to ask what’s up, said Eva Colomb, the town’s clerk-treasurer.

Colomb said the lights are needed because people speed through Millwood’s commercial area, and traffic is expected to increase along that stretch of Argonne after work on the railroad underpass north of Trent is completed.

Once begun, the work on the traffic signals should take only about one week, said Colvico’s Kelly. After the signals are connected to power, they will be coordinated with the rest of Argonne’s traffic signals.

The road won’t be completely closed, though. Crews will dig up Argonne one lane at a time.

“They like to keep Argonne open,” Kelly said. “They’re funny like that.”

, DataTimes