Driver Cites Rock Hazard Along Rutter Parkway

For Bill Thompson, driving Rutter Parkway has been like navigating an obstacle course.

Thompson, a retiree who lives near the Spokane Country Club and drives Rutter Parkway almost daily, said he routinely finds fallen rocks in the roadway.

“This is a very dangerous situation. Someone’s going to have a bad accident,” he said.

Thompson said the aging rock wall along the edge of the road is to blame. Dozens of rocks already have fallen from the wall onto the roadway, and many more are loose and appear ready to come down. The situation is worst, he said, just west of where Rutter Parkway meets Waikiki Road.

The narrow road, just 18 feet wide in parts, weaves along the Little Spokane River between Nine Mile Road and Waikiki Road. Because of its proximity to the river, there’s often fog, making oncoming traffic hard to see.

Phil Barto, head of road maintenance for Spokane County, said about 15 rocks tumble onto Rutter Parkway every year, and the county removes them and takes the rocks to a pit area.

They are being saved in the event the rock wall along the roadway is ever reconstructed.

Maintenance crews want no part of trying to remove loose rocks from the wall.

“We don’t have the financial resources to take care of the rock wall,” Barto said. He also said there is liability and a potential for enormous cost.

“We are concerned about the number of rocks that have fallen off. We are going to pick them up,” Barto said.

“You have to be careful when you start moving. … The whole darn thing could fall off.”

In 1994 the county asked the federal government for $502,000 to improve safety along Rutter Parkway. However, the grant application was not successful.

Similar concerns were raised a few years ago about the rocky area near the Little Spokane at Dartford Road. The roadway there is much wider, and the state Department of Transportation placed concrete barricades between the cliff and roadway.

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