Kennewick Real Estate Blog

The new roundabout behind Columbia Center Mall seems to be nearing completion. The Gage Blvd./Center Parkway intersection is closed today and tomorrow so crews can finish paving and putting down the traffic stripes in the area. I was in the area this morning and took this photo of the work being done:

I’m guessing the roundabout will be open as of Thursday this week, but don’t quote me on that. I’m just hopeful that people don’t treat the roundabout like a racing circle. We had that discussion earlier on this blog….

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Kennewick is getting a new roundabout behind the Columbia Center Mall.

Turns out that project is going to start on Monday, and the City of Kennewick says drivers should use Grandridge Blvd. to avoid delays. The roundabout is going in at the intersection of Gage Blvd. and Center Parkway — which will remain open for most of the project, but it’ll probably be really slooooooow.

You’ve been warned.

While a lot of Tri-Cities residents are unhappy with the roundabout at the intersection of Steptoe Street, Columbia Park Trail, and Hwy. 240 (see WSDOT photo at right), the Kennewick City Council has voted to add another roundabout right behind the Columbia Center Mall.

The new Kennewick roundabout will be located at the rear of the mall, at the intersection of Gage Boulevard and Center Parkway. Work will start there in June and the roundabout should be complete by September … so, I’ll be finding another way to get into the Columbia Center Mall this summer.

Kennewick’s Public Works Director, Peter Beaudry, told KNDU last week that a roundabout will help reduce delays at the intersection and make it safer:

“Roundabouts do have less traffic collisions then [sic] you experience at a traffic signal and the type of collisions that occur at a roundabout are much less severe.”

I’m not in the roundabouts-are-bad camp; they’re not a problem at all when people know how to use them and drive safely through them. But I try to avoid the roundabout at Grandridge Avenue and Center Parkway whenever possible, because too many drivers fly through that thing at 30 mph or higher, and it’s not safe at that speed. The idea to put a roundabout behind the mall won’t be a problem, as long as people drive carefully through it. We’ll see how that goes….

This is good news for Kennewick residents: Benton PUD says electric bills are getting lower, and they’ll start putting credits on customer accounts as of June 1st. (Yes, there’s actually something that going to cost less.)

The reason, as explained on this KNDU news story, is that Benton PUD overpaid the Bonneville Power Administration. So that overpayment is going to be returned to customers.

Says Karen Miller: “Benton PUD gets about 87 percent of it’s electricity from hydropower and this power is inexpensive, clean, renewable power that we are very proud of and lowers rates are pushed to our customers.”

Kennewick residents should see, on average, a $70 credit over the next year. Every little bit counts in this day and age.

There are lots of reasons to live in Kennewick: the weather, the schools, the shopping, the sports and recreation, and much more. Someday we’ll do a big post here on the Kennewick Real Estate Blog about all the reasons why living in Kennewick is so great.

But at the moment, probably the No. 1 reason is … the economy. I’ve done a lot of traveling this year, and friends always seem to ask how things are going in our area. And the answer is always the same: The economy is solid, the housing market is chugging along, and we’re not seeing the same things that are happening elsewhere.

Our local newspaper talked about this in an article two days ago about how we’re bucking employment trends in the Tri-Cities:

Even if there’s a national recession, the Tri-Cities won’t be affected too much, Schau said. With agriculture booming, the local food processing sector will do well, and work on Hanford’s vitrification plant can be expected to generate more construction jobs as long as the federal budget remains solid, Schau said.

So, I’d say that’s the main reason why it’s great to live in Kennewick, WA, at the moment. No guarantee it’ll always be good like this, but we’ve been fortunate so far in the Tri-Cities to avoid a lot of slowdown issues that are hurting other communities.