If you have travelled Waller Road or Military Road in the past several months, you may have noticed the orange “bump” signs that have been there awhile. Contractors have worked on the intersection and then seemingly abandoned it, leaving the drop offs to make the crossings uncomfortable at best, or damaging our vehicle undercarriages at worst.

So, I called Bruce Wagner at Pierce County Public Works, because he has been there long enough to know everyone. Brett Sonntag called me back and said he would look into it, not having realized how long the intersection has been torn up. When he called back, he said it was a school district project and it was between them and their contractors.

At a school board community forum, I asked John Manning about it. He said it was something electrical, something on order and pointed to Elmhurst. At the Mid-County Leadership meeting I asked Tom Seigel, who basically said the same thing, thinking it was Elmhurst.

When I got home, I called Elmhurst. Corey, the Operations Manager told me Elmhurst had finished all their work. Then I called Sara Coccia in Facilities and Operations. She was totally on top of what was happening . Here goes…

The intersection is between two new elementary schools, Katherine Johnson and Naches Trail. It is supposed to become a traffic signal with some sidewalk. The contractor ordered the parts for the light poles, but they were delayed because of supply chain issues. In fact, it took 9 months to get them. As of this time, those parts have arrived. All the other signaling parts are ready as well.

According to Sara at Facilities, the district met with the contractor, Miles Construction and the Pierce County inspector, Dennis Patterson on October 6 to discuss the situation and plan finishing the project. Miles needed to get the work scheduled around its other projects.

The final word, well, the expectation is, at this time, that the work on the intersection will resume at the end of this week or next week. In other words, very soon. They may finish before it ever snows. Flaggers will be back when they start working again, so plan your travel carefully next week.