NCW Construction Projects Continue Into Autumn; McKittrick Underpass & Beaver Hill To Open Soon
A number of major construction projects are continuing in North Central Washington as autumn stretches further into October and November.
In Chelan County, drivers will continue to encounter work zones on two major roadways until the end of October.
Summer Derry with the Washington State Department of Transportation says efforts to install guardrail along U.S. Highway 2 in Tumwater Canyon, and paving on a 19-mile stretch of the Chumstick Highway outside Leavenworth will both continue for a few more weeks before wrapping up.
Motorists on both roadways should plan for delays as the work progresses, but an associated piece of the project on the Chumstick will soon be finished.
Chelan County Commissioner Kevin Overbay says the section of the road that winds along Beaver Hill just south of Plain will be re-opening on Saturday.
Crews have been active at the site since Sept. 28 building a large retaining wall in the wake of damages that were caused by a series of rainstorms last December.
"They are rebuilding and paving the road right now in the work zone," explains Overbay. "It's a pretty large retaining wall, so people will probably notice it, but the nice thing is that it's going to provide the stability that we've been needing in the area."
Meanwhile, in the city of Wenatchee, one block of Wenatchee Avenue between Kittitas and Yakima Streets is entering its second month of being shut down.
The closure is associated with a multi-year project to erect a seven-story apartment complex in the downtown area, and is necessary as crews replace water mains, realign and build new sidewalks, and add landscaping around the new structure.
City of Wenatchee Administrator Edgar Reinfeld says the closure will persist for "several months," but how long it will actually take to complete the work is fully dependent on what workers discover as they excavate the necessary sections of Wenatchee Avenue.
"Those streets haven't been dug up for over 100 years," says Reinfeld. "So there's no telling what might be under them or what the crews doing the work are going to find. And it (the closure) will all depend on what they uncover as they're doing that work."
Reinfeld adds that once the work between Kittitas and Yakima is finished, crews will then move one block north for similar projects on Wenatchee Avenue between Yakima and Orondo Avenue - which will also be shut down for several months, likely by sometime early next year.
Although the closure and attached detour using South Columbia Street has become a daily irritation for many commuters, Reinfeld did offer a bit of good news for drivers in Wenatchee in offering that the first phase of work associated with the ambitious Confluence Parkway Project on the north side of town will soon be wrapping up.
"The underpass at McKittrick (Street) is just about done. In fact, we're going to be opening that possibly by the first of November. All the paving's complete and they're just finishing up a few other things before we can get it open."
The massive, polyphasic endeavor began in April, 2025, with the first piece adding 1.25 miles of new asphalt and sidewalks for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians that will extend McKittrick Street to the east and southeast, using the newly-built overpass at the train tracks owned by BNSF Railway.
Across town in neighboring East Wenatchee, a summer that was filled with frustration and detours will continue until well into autumn for motorists on Eastmont Avenue.
The well-traveled artery has been the subject of southbound closures on roughly a half-a-mile of its asphalt between 11th Street Northeast and 15th Street Northeast since May, as part of a major project to replace the city's water mains.
East Wenatchee Mayor Jerrilea Crawford says she would've preferred seeing the work take place in two phases, but fiscal constraints led to a requirement for it to be done by the end of 2026.
Crawford says she understands how nightmarish the necessary closure on one of her city's busiest streets has been, and applauds the patience citizens have shown while the project has continued into fall.
Crawford adds the wait for Eastmont to fully re-open won't be too much longer, as this week crews are shoring up their last major connections from the new mains to existing infrastructure and prepping the road for paving. She says the work will be fully completed by some time in mid- to late November.