Heading down Queensgate Drive from Shockley Road toward Gala Way, the curb now bulges into the street every few hundred feet. Each bulge squeezes the road down to two 10-foot lanes. Then the street opens up again for a stretch, and then it narrows again. The City of Richland put in these curb extensions, called choker curbs, as part of its 2026 Citywide Traffic Calming Enhancements project. According to TriYakNews, they are the first of their kind anywhere in the Tri-Cities.
The tight feeling at each choke point is on purpose. The curbs are sized so the road feels right at the posted speed and wrong above it. Richland's own program rules also make them much harder to remove than they were to put in. If you live in Jericho Heights, this is the Queensgate you'll be driving through at least next summer.
A 25 mph street that was running closer to 40
Queensgate is posted at 25 mph through this stretch. The city's traffic counts found that the fastest 15 percent of drivers were going faster than 38.8 mph. That's almost 14 mph over the limit, and it was the top slice of regular traffic, not a few outliers. The city's Queensgate project page also says speed was the leading contributing factor in the corridor's crash history.
Speed alone doesn't get a street onto the list. Richland's Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program scores every resident request on speed, traffic volume, nearby pedestrian destinations, sidewalks and collision history. A score of 2.5 or less knocks a request out. In the city's 2025 ranked-request list, the Queensgate segment from Shockley Road to White Bluffs scored 4.75, nearly double the cutoff.
The project also started with neighbors. TriYakNews reported that the placement was decided by the neighborhood, EMS and the City of Richland together through that program. Most requests come from people on the street, and a valid resident request has to be signed by residents of three affected properties.
The hill is why these aren't speed humps
Speed humps are a common treatment in Richland's program. Forest Avenue north of McMurray Street and Long Avenue between Stevens Drive and Swift Boulevard both got humps in this same 2026 project. Queensgate got something different because of how it's built.
The city's FAQ gives three reasons:
- Grade. Parts of Queensgate are too steep for speed humps or speed cushions to work well.
- Emergency response. Fire engines and ambulances have to ride over humps, which can slow response times and jostle patients and crews.
- Count. The corridor needed nine traffic-calming devices. The city weighed what nine humps in a row would do to emergency response.
Choker curbs slow traffic without raising the pavement, so an engine heading up the hill never goes over a bump. The spacing matters too. The city spaces calming devices roughly 400 to 500 feet apart because a single choke point would just get drivers braking, then speeding up again right after it. A chain of them is meant to hold speeds steady along the whole corridor.
Twenty feet is roomier than it feels at 35
The road through each choker is at least 20 feet wide. That's two 10-foot lanes, built to a design from the Washington State Department of Transportation's 2024 Active Transportation Programs Design Guide. Here's how that compares with what drives through it:
| Measurement | Width |
|---|---|
| Each travel lane at a choker | 10 feet |
| Minimum roadway between curb extensions | 20 feet |
| Typical passenger vehicle | About 6 to 7 feet |
| Standard legal vehicle width in Washington | 8 feet, 6 inches |
A typical car leaves about three feet to spare in its lane. The space is there. What changes is how close it feels at speed, and the city has said that's the point. Richland Deputy City Manager Joe Schiessl explained it plainly to TriYakNews:
"They're designed for a certain speed, so they will not feel comfortable above the speed they were designed for, and they were designed for a 25 mile an hour road. So if you wanna drive Queensgate faster than 25, it will feel narrow and it will feel uncomfortable and that's literally the point."
The city's driving guidance is short. Slow down before the narrowing, stay in your lane, and go through without swerving. When a larger vehicle is coming the other way, keep a safe speed and leave room for both of you to pass. The curbs were designed so drivers don't need sudden steering moves if they arrive at the right speed. Choker curbs aren't protected bike lanes either. They narrow the road at certain points and don't separate bikes from cars along the whole route.
How Queensgate ended up first in the Tri-Cities
Allstar Construction Group was the contractor on the citywide project, which had a planned construction window of June 15 to August 31. Queensgate shared that schedule with the Forest and Long Avenue work. Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business and NBC Right Now both covered those three locations before the summer work started.
Since nothing like this had been built in the region before, drivers had nothing local to compare it to. TriYakNews reported that the newness led people to post frustrations on social media and to speak about the curbs at City Council. The same report said there was no confirmation of where the next choker curbs might go. Right now, Queensgate is the region's only example of how this design works on a residential street.
What happens next, and on whose timeline
The city says it will check whether the curbs are working. Staff will review traffic speeds and other results, plus signage, visibility and roadway clearances, and consider changes if the data shows they're needed. No review results have been published yet. That 38.8 mph figure is the number to watch when they are.
Taking the curbs out is a separate process with a higher bar. Under Richland's Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program guidelines, devices can be removed only after all of these steps:
- At least 12 months have passed since installation, and the city has done a new engineering analysis.
- Owners or residents of three or more lots in the affected area submit a petition that the city has prepared or approved.
- City staff hold a neighborhood meeting. Lower-cost changes may come up there as an alternative to full removal.
- Ballots go by first-class mail to properties on streets within 300 feet of the device, and at least 67 percent must support removal. The ballot is advisory to city staff.
Compare that with what it took to install them. A new project passes its neighborhood ballot with more than 50 percent support and fewer than 40 percent no votes, after abstentions are removed. Removal needs two-thirds. The citywide work was scheduled for this summer, so by our count the 12-month minimum puts any removal effort somewhere in summer 2027 at the earliest.
The same program also works in the other direction for nearby streets. Richland takes traffic calming requests year-round. Requests received by the end of February are considered in that year's cycle, which makes the end of February 2027 the next one on the calendar. To qualify, a street has to be a residential local or collector road posted at 30 mph or less, with a mostly straight segment at least 600 feet long. The Public Works Department answers program questions at (509) 942-7500.
This is general information about a city program, not legal advice. If you're thinking about a petition, a ballot or a request, confirm the current requirements with the City of Richland directly.
At Laura & Wes Hodges, we drive Queensgate as often as anyone in Jericho Heights, and we'll keep watching for the city's review results and any changes to this stretch. If you'd like that kind of street-level update along with new listings, sign up to receive listings in your inbox.
