Borst Avenue Unlikely to Open in Time For School

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The reconstruction of Borst Avenue to accommodate a multi-use pathway and plant-based drainage system won’t be complete by the time school begins next month, according to Ed Petersen, public relations and communications director for the Centralia School District.

Petersen provided updates on a number of school district items during the public comment portion of the Centralia City Council meeting on Tuesday, including the near-completion of the two new elementary schools slated to be unveiled to the public later this month. He said that district staff met Monday with the team in charge of the Borst Avenue project and that it sounds like it may not be finished until November.

Borst Avenue runs from Centralia Middle School down to Centralia High School and is a primary source of both foot and vehicle traffic during the school year. Cars have been detoured onto nearby Mount Vista Road while construction has been taking place this summer; Petersen said Thursday that not all school traffic will be rerouted onto Mount Vista come September.



Centralia Public Works Director Kim Ashmore was unable to be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

“It sounds like we have some good plans in place for how we’re going to handle school traffic during the first quarter of the school year,” Petersen said Tuesday. “… We have a good plan for routing it around the middle school that should keep it out of the way of construction and not cause too many issues. The high school is working on a way to communicate to students and families the alternate routes they have available to them as well. We have a lot of kids who walk down Borst and obviously it’s not going to be available for the first part of the school year, so we want to give them safe options to bike, walk, or however they get to school.”