Highway 27 Going Down To 1 Lane

If you thought Highway 27 would be the one of the only roads in the Valley to escape construction this summer, think again.

The state Department of Transportation will resurface a seven-mile stretch of Highway 27, from 32nd Avenue south to Freeman.

The project, expected to cost $1 to $2 million, will reduce traffic to one lane during construction. The bid process will begin by mid-June and the work should be done before mid-October, DOT spokesman Al Gilson said.

The DOT plans only on paving and will not widen the road, Gilson said.

The DOT had put the project on hold after losing revenue from motor vehicle taxes last year. After the state Legislature decided to make up for much of the shortfall, the project was reinstated, Gilson said.

“We’re in a hurry now. We would’ve liked to have all the contracts out by now but we had to wait for the Legislature,” Gilson said.

At a glance, the road doesn’t appear to need new pavement. It has a few fissures, but no potholes and few patched areas.

Gilson said the pavement overlay is a preventative measure. People drive Highway 27 at high speeds and too many potholes, patches and cracks make the road unsafe.

“We can’t allow roadways to become overly patched. We want to pave before we get there for safety reasons,” Gilson said.

The extra funding from the Legislature was also the DOT’s signal to go ahead with bids for completing work on the west-bound Sprague interchange this fall. It will add a travel lane and a merge lane to match the already-funded east-bound portion. The east-bound portion of the project is scheduled to be finished by late summer or early fall.