Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Backups for miles in east County
Traffic backs up as far as the eye can see in the northbound lane of State Highway 23 near Sprague Sunday, Aug. 20. Traffic around Lincoln County saw historic backups due to Interstate 90's fire-related closure from Sprague to Four Lakes.
DAVENPORT - An Interstate 90 closure from Sprague to Four Lakes caused by the Gray Fire in Medical Lake detoured traffic through east Lincoln County and created miles-long backups on various highways throughout the area this weekend.
Officials and locals reported seeing bumper-to-bumper traffic on U.S. Highway 2 from Airway Heights to Davenport and on State Highway 231 from Sprague to U.S. Highway 2 west of Reardan.
"I would describe that as a once in 100-year event," Lincoln County Sheriff Gabe Gants said.
Between Saturday, Aug. 19 and Sunday, Aug. 20, deputies between the Sheriff's Office, Reardan Police Department and Washington State Patrol made 114 traffic stops.
"It was chaos, but it was controlled chaos," undersheriff Jesse Allen said. "I got a call from the Spokane County undersheriff; they were pretty overwhelmed with the fire...so he told me they needed to close I-90 and reroute traffic through Lincoln County."
Once backups began to quickly reach miles-long, officials decided to close Waukon Road, Brommer Road, Krupke Road and the southbound lane of State Highway 231, except to local traffic.
"I was concerned that the wind would change and send the fire back our way, so I wanted Waukon to be open in case the firefighters needed to get through," Allen said.
Sunday, Public Works, Dept. of Transportation and police decided to close Harrington-Tokio Road due to intense backups at the Tokio-Interstate 90 interchange and a railroad crossing that could have further caused traffic delays.
"All our local roads are good roads, but they're not built to handle that level of traffic," Allen said.
State Highway 231's southbound closure was intended to allow semitrucks to cross through the winding roads without causing a head-on crash. Some people stopped in Edwall to fill up their gas tanks or use the bathroom at the local fire station as cars sat bumper-to-bumper from Sprague to the Inland Northwest Rail Museum.
"We're calling it Interstate 231," Edwall local and EMT captain Sue Lani Madsen quipped.
"If we didn't close that southbound lane, we would've had something horrible happen," Davenport-based Dept. of Transportation maintenance superintendent Kurt Coffman said.
"We had well over 10 times our usual traffic."
Through it all, there were no traffic crashes in the backups. One man was arrested on a charge of reckless driving.
"There was a lot of silliness," Dept. of Transportation maintenance supervisor Pat Kenyon said. At one point, someone came off I-90 and started trying to pass people on Highway 23, and then they turned onto Highway 231 while staying in the left lane."
Frustration with the backups also lead to poor driving decisions, Coffman said.
"People were a little irritated, so they were doing stupid things," he said. "Hopefully they were all West Siders."
Many people blamed their attempts to drive around road closure signs on Google Maps directing them to go that way, Allen and Kenyon said.
"Maps doesn't update as fast as we update," Kenyon said.
"We were getting all kinds of complaints of people that went by road closed signs and were mad because their GPS told them to go that way," Allen said.
Amazingly, no roads suffered damage from the increased traffic, Lincoln County Public Works director Dave Orvis said.
Jerry and Cindy Warner traveled to Spokane to pick up their dog from the veterinarian Sunday. They said their commute from the Spokane Casino in Airway Heights to their home in Davenport, normally a 25-minute drive, took over two hours.
"It was barely stop-and-go traffic," Cindy Warner said. "It was hardly moving at all...some people were trying to turn around and they couldn't because of the backup. Our dog was sitting in the backseat and jumped up to sit in the front, so I had to move to the back."
Some Lincoln County businesses saw increased customer levels, while others said their businesses were relatively unaffected.
"People didn't want to get off the main drag," Tribune Smokehouse owner Debra Brickner said. "It didn't benefit us at all."
Davenport Family Foods owner Sherill Hansen, however, said her store saw about 50% more traffic than normal.
"It was mostly just beverages, but it still helps," Hansen said. "I'm thankful they had a good road to go on, and it's part of living in a community where you take care of each other."
Harrington-based coffee shop The Post & Office owner Heather Slack said their shop, normally closed Sundays, opened to offer coffee and a bathroom break to the many passersby.
"It was massive amounts of traffic compared to normal," Slack said. "I felt bad for people who didn't know where they were going and were trying to get home."
Dean's Drive-In in Reardan also saw many more customers than usual, front desk worker Andrea Binard said.
"It was a whole lot busier than normal," she said.
Davenport city clerk Dave Leath said the bathrooms at Pioneer Plaza ran out of paper supplies due to massive amounts of people needing to use the restroom, but the rooms were left relatively closed.
Others reportedly preferred to do their business in the parking lot at Traders Express or alongside the road.
Ultimately, Coffman said Lincoln County towns and cities showed patience in the massive backups.
"It was the only route we had," Coffman said. "We appreciate the town's patience."
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
Reader Comments(0)