Pasco has secured nearly $1.8 million in federal funding to fix four street crossings identified as high-risk for pedestrians, according to reporting by the Tri-City Herald. The money comes from the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program, or HSIP, and requires no local match from the city.
The $1.782 million will pay for new flashing pedestrian lights or pedestrian-activated signals at four intersections: Burden Boulevard and Homerun, North Fourth Avenue and Agate Street, West Lewis Street and Eighth Avenue, and North 20th Avenue and Park Street. The Fourth Avenue location sits one block north of Court Street.
Three of the crossings — Burden and Homerun, Fourth and Agate, and Lewis and Eighth — are expected to get rectangular rapid flashing beacons, the kind of blinking lights already used at some Tri-Cities crosswalks to warn drivers a pedestrian is present. The fourth, at 20th and Park, would get something more forceful: a pedestrian hybrid beacon, a signal that turns red and stops traffic while someone crosses, then returns to a dark, inactive state otherwise.
The project also covers new signage, pavement markings, accessibility upgrades and any utility work needed to install the equipment, the Herald reported.
Why these four locations
All four crossings were flagged through Pasco's Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, which the city council adopted in February, engineering manager Andrey Avetisyan told the Herald. The plan reviewed the city's crash data to identify locations where pedestrians face the highest risk, though the full list of flagged sites hasn't been detailed publicly beyond these four.
Residents who want to see whether other nearby intersections made that list would need to check the safety plan itself, which the city referenced when explaining why these specific crossings were chosen for the HSIP application.
Timeline: don't expect changes soon
Design work on the four crossings isn't scheduled to start until mid-2027, and construction isn't expected until 2029. That's a long runway, and it means drivers and pedestrians at Burden and Homerun, Fourth and Agate, Lewis and Eighth, and 20th and Park will be navigating those intersections largely as-is for at least another two and a half years.
Part of a larger push
This grant is one of several pedestrian-safety investments Pasco has in motion. The city is separately pursuing a Clark Street corridor project between 2nd and 10th avenues, funded by just under $1.8 million from the state's pedestrian and bicycle program, according to Citizen Portal. That project would narrow the road in residential sections, add protected cycle tracks behind angled parking, create new crossings and coordinate with Ben Franklin Transit bus stops.
Pasco has also already finished the Sylvester Street Safety Improvements project, which added enhanced crosswalks with rapid flashing beacons at a cost of $4.9 million — $1.52 million from federal grants and $2.675 million from the state — according to the city's project page.
The funding is part of a broader statewide effort to cut traffic deaths. Richland separately received $11.7 million in federal Safe Streets and Roads for All money to overhaul George Washington Way and Jadwin Avenue, where 548 crashes have caused four deaths and 152 injuries, according to a press release from Sen. Maria Cantwell's office. Pasco's award is far smaller but fits the same pattern: federal dollars aimed at documented crash locations rather than general road upgrades.
For now, the next milestone to watch is design work starting in mid-2027. Residents who cross at any of the four locations in the meantime should continue to use caution, since none of the new equipment will be in place before 2029 at the earliest.
