Kennewick Real Estate Blog

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….