2 days Ago By Brennen Kauffman [email protected]
Longtime plans to update Columbia Heights Road are stalled as officials search for more money to complete the work. Longview is aiming to resurface the lower mile of the road between Fishers Lane and Cascade Drive and add a sidewalk for the first time. “Nobody should have to walk in the middle of the road, which is very dangerous right now,” said Columbia Heights resident Larry Davis.
“There’s no sidewalk at all on either side.” The city received a $5.5 million in earmarks in 2022 through former Rep.
Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, for the project and an additional $519,000 from the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments in 2023. But Assistant City Manager Chris Collins said more funds are needed. Collins said the city is in the design phase for the project and is zeroing in on a primary construction budget.
The earliest that construction would begin is 2026 if the project is fully funded, which Collins said was likely still a ways off. The Council of Governments’ annual list of projects states the Columbia Heights Road project will need an additional $5 million to be completed. The biggest cost driver for the project is the steep hills and forests that run alongside Columbia Heights Road, some of which pose landslide risks for the road during construction.
A 2015 landslide closed the road for several days and led to the construction of the existing stretch of retaining wall alongside the road. Longview closed one lane of the road in April to conduct a fuller geotechnical review of the area. Collins said the more that the retaining walls need to be extended and built taller, the more expensive the final product is going to be.
“It depends on where we can cut off the walls,” Collins said. “If we have to build them everywhere, we’re not even close to fully funded. But we’re not on that determination point.
” In 2023, Longview councilmembers also voted to double vehicle license fees from $20 to $40 to fund street maintenance and large-scale road projects, such as Columbia Heights improvements. Vehicle license fees, also known as car tabs, are an annual charge for vehicles registered within the city limits. The fee increase was estimated to provide Longview an additional $600,000 per year beginning in 2024.
Columbia Heights Road, captured on Friday, Sept. 13 in Longview. The winding road does not currently have a sidewalk, making it dangerous for pedestrians.
Improving the road has been a longrunning request. Herrera Beutler also secured funding for the road project in the version of the infrastructure bill that passed the House of Representatives in 2021, but the funds did not end up in the final version of the bill. In late 2021, then Councilmember Christine Schott said the road had a bad reputation since before her family moved there in the 1970s and the condition has only gotten worse in recent years.
At that time, City Manager Kurt Sacha asked legislators to help the city secure funding in to install lights, sidewalks and a drainage system along the road. Collins said the road will still be widened, but not as much as first planned to control costs. Additional lights will use Cowlitz PUD’s infrastructure, he added.
When the $5.5 million was approved in 2022, then mayor MaryAlice Wallis said in a statement the funding was crucial due to the nearby school. “These much-needed improvements, which include road widening, sidewalks, and lighting, provide safety for our children, their parents, and school employees,” she said in a 2022 announcement from Herrera Beutler’s office.
Columbia Heights Elementary School is located off Parkview Drive. The turnoff is about 600 feet from Cascade Drive, where the sidewalk to set to be added. Brennen Kauffman is a reporter for The Daily News covering government, with a concentration on Longview and Kelso.
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