City of Yelm completes repaving of Third Street in preparation for downtown one-way couplets

In an effort to revitalize Yelm’s downtown corridor region, the city has renovated and repaved Third Street in preparation of re-working Washington Avenue, McKenzie Avenue, Fourth Street and Mosman Avenue into one-way couplets.

According to Cody Colt, Yelm Public Works director, the recently repaved Third Street was one of Yelm’s lowest rated roads and featured numerous potholes and other traffic obstructions.

Though the road was recently paved last week, Yelm Public Works will later add some drainage solutions near the region this fall to help with flooding issues.

“Third Street does have puddles but it’s more towards Mosman that it floods,” Colt said. “There were a couple of houses that were having issues and we wanted to help them out. We’ll fix that flooding issue before we go to full construction of the road later with the couplets.”

Colt noted the one-way couplets will be “a very expensive project,” and one that the city will wait to begin construction on until Yelm receives federal funding.

“The one-way couplets project will redo Washington, McKenzie, 3rd Street, Fourth Street and Mosman,” Colt said. “It turns Washington and McKenzie both into one-way couplets, and then turns Fourth Street into a one-way that will connect all the way to Mosman.”

Colt added the one-way couplets will revitalize the area and incorporate additional on-street parking and other amenities to help the flow of that region — as it’s known for hosting numerous events throughout the year.

“The downtown area, as you know, is where all of the activities happen,” Colt said. “The Yelm Farmers Market, the Prairie Days, Jazz in the Park, Yelm Barbecue Rally — we want to make it more accessible to shut down those roads and make those events even bigger. We’ve been trying to move forward with it and do it in smaller pieces. I think it will help activate and revitalize that downtown area.”

The public works director specified that won’t see any more roads re-paved in the near future, and noted the City of Yelm has already done paving work on Third Street, Middle Road and Railway Road this year.

What you will see, according to Colt, is the City of Yelm striping numerous different roadways throughout town. He said the city is currently assessing which areas will receive those upgrades later in the year.

“We are doing the alleyway, and that’s part of the downtown core as well,” Colt said. “The activated alleyway actually goes to bid this week — Fuller Footpath. It will be really awesome. I’m pretty excited about that project.”