The Yakima City Council is looking to move into action tonight, continuing work on two major street projects.

Yakima City Council members will be asked to approve and adopt H Street as the route for the east-west corridor, which would eventually link Terrace Heights across a new Yakima River bridge to north 40th Avenue. They will be asked to approve additional engineering work for the start of the Martin Luther King Jr. railroad underpass project.

Councilwoman Sara Bristol called the east-west corridor a major project for Yakima, and will support redevelopment of the 211-acre old Boise Cascade mill property for a mixed-use development of residential, commercial and light industrial.

This project will also being seen as a way to relieve traffic congestion on Yakima Avenue and at the Interstate 82-Yakima Avenue interchange.

The city of Yakima received additional federal funds to finish work on the underpass, which is part of a larger project that includes the recently completed Lincoln Avenue underpass. The $5.5 million in added funding replaces funds that had to be diverted to the Lincoln Avenue underpass, which encountered problems with construction of the roadbed.

The overall project will cost about $41.5 million. Construction on the underpass could begin this fall.

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