A few years ago, my bike commute included riding on Wenatchee’s King Street, not far from Columbia Elementary.  At the time, King Street was the most bumpy, pot-holed road in town.

I talked about it on the morning show. Oddly, after calling out King Street being a hell hole of a road: The City improved it!

There is a well traveled road in the Downtown Wenatchee area that has been in horrible condition for years. We'll get to that in a bit.

 

Here are the three roadways, in descending order,  in the Wenatchee Valley that I think need some sort of improvement...with one that probably won’t be changed anytime soon.


 

3) Douglas Street (or any street adjacent to the Wenatchee CVCH campus)

credit: Connor
credit: Connor
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- Douglas Street is a block away from the previously mentioned King Street. Driving around CVCH, I noticed roads in that neighborhood suffer from bad, neglected conditions.

credit:Connor
credit:Connor
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credit: Connor
credit: Connor
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2) The East Wenatchee Route 28 Bypass near Fred Meyer. 

-At the time of this story, this whole stretch of road has been shut down due to emergency construction work. According to KPQ, the repairs are for failed storm water pipes that have been leaking - causing dangerous dips in the roadway. The WSDOT says the repairs would take about 10 days to complete.

credit: WSDOT
credit: WSDOT
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But this is NOT the reason for the bypass landing at #2 on our bumpy list.

-Anyone ever notice, when you’re driving in the left hand lane (the one that takes you to Costco, Town Toyota car dealership, or 3rd Street SE) that you have to be careful to avoid the manhole covers (or are they drainage grates?) - You know the ones that make your vehicle go BUMP when you hit em’ at 40 miles per hour. The engineers probably could have placed those manhole covers closer to the center of the lane, Am I right? This problem probably won't be going away, anytime soon...moving manhole covers doesn't seem like an easy fix.


 

1) The entire stretch of Wenatchee’s Columbia Street. 

credit: Connor
credit: Connor
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credit: Connor
credit: Connor
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-This road is badly hurting - from near the Wenatchee Amtrak train stop and Link Transit/Trailways bus station - all the way to behind the Performing Arts Center. This road has been terrible for years. Back in the late 2000s, the local bike community even had a Spring bike race that included Columbia Street, called: THE BEAST OF THE EAST (in homage to the French cobblestone one day classic, Paris-Roubaix; THE HELL OF THE NORTH).

credit: Connor
credit: Connor
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I’m hoping that the city or county will plan on repairs of Columbia Street after seeing it #1 on this list.


Is there a stretch of road in the Wenatchee Valley that needs to be in the Top 3 for worst roads?  Let us know in the Facebook comment section (Where this story appears) or by clicking the CHAT button on the free KW3 app on your device.

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