Two high-profile intersections on Duportail Street in south Richland are getting makeovers as the city prepares to open its new Yakima River span to through-traffic this fall.  

Granite Construction Co. began a $1.3 million project to add turn lanes at the intersections with Queensgate Drive and Keene Road after winning the contract in July. 

Granite Construction, which is based in Watsonville, California, and specializes in infrastructure development, is using a vacant 11-acre site at Duportail and Keene as a staging area for the work. Its construction gear is highly visible to passersby, prompting curiosity about what was happening.  

Granite got off to a bumpy start when it accidentally struck a Cascade Natural Gas line that crosses the site on Aug. 18. The resulting gas leak temporarily closed Queensgate businesses, snarled traffic and prompted a regionwide emergency alert to avoid the area. 

The staging site is not being developed, according to the Kennewick Irrigation District, which owns it.  

The Duportail Corridor Improvement Project will add turning lanes at both intersections to ease changing traffic patterns when the $32 million Duportail Bridge opens this fall, linking central Richland to Queensgate.  

The city’s bridge contractor, Apollo Inc., has completed the bridge project and is completing a second phase to connect it with Highway 240 to the east. 

Neighboring residents are using the bridge, but it is inaccessible to through-traffic until it ties to the bypass highway. 

The Keene-Duportail intersection will gain a northbound turn lane to Duportail.  

The Queensgate-Duportail intersection will add a northbound lane from Duportail to Queensgate, and an eastbound lane from Duportail to Queensgate. 

The work will wrap up in November, after the bridge opens, said Pete Rogalsky, Richland’s public works director.  

The city engineer estimated the corridor improvement work would cost about $900,000. Granite Construction submitted the low bid of $1.1 million. Apollo Inc. of Kennewick bid $1.36 million and Goodman & Mehlenbacher Ent. Inc. of Kennewick bid $1.14 million. 

The $1.3 million budget includes costs associated with design and right-of-way acquisition. It is being paid for with a combination of real estate excise taxes and the traffic impact fees Richland collects from developers.