Bureau might be good for B Street

Considering the fact that the lowering of the speed limit from 40 to 30 mph on a short strip of three-lane from Grand Coulee to the Grand Coulee Project offices had nothing to do with construction safety concerns, the Bureau of Reclamation’s suggestion that it should own a portion of B Street should be considered, with conditions.

The real reason the bureau lowered that speed limit on the portion of State Route 155 that it owns was to make legal what it has been doing since it took delivery of a couple dozen all-electric utility vehicles that only go up to about 25 mph.

State law doesn’t allow such vehicles on roads with speed limits of 40 mph, but the federal agency would no doubt find its $900,000 vehicle purchase more efficient if it could actually use those rigs to get to all its many local facilities, including the switchyard just above Grand Coulee on the highway to Bridgeport.

The city of Grand Coulee, worried the bureau might someday decide to close B Street again, might see an opportunity for a trade for such access, allowing those slow and quiet little vehicles an easy path through a neighborhood that gets the bureau closer to the switchyard.

At any rate, even if that guess is way off, Grand Coulee could do us all a favor if they could bargain for a restoration of a sane speed limit.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher