Work on Pines, I-90 interchange set for spring

Spokane Valley began preparing residents Thursday for a complicated and long-running road project at Pines Road and Interstate 90 next year.

A start date hasn’t been established yet, but at some point next spring, crews will begin reconfiguring the freeway interchange and rearranging traffic-control devices in the nearby neighborhood. The work is expected to take five or six months.

While concrete is poured on refurbished sections of Pines, the 17,700 cars each day that travel the road will have to jog around it. Some people on Mansfield Avenue won’t have access to their houses during the day, and traffic getting on and off the freeway westbound will likely also face delays as those ramps are reconfigured.

In the long run, though, traffic should run more smoothly between Mission and Mirabeau Parkway. Cars entering Pines from westbound I-90 will all go to Indiana, and the existing off ramp and traffic light there will be removed. A new light will go in at Mansfield Avenue nearby, and all of the lights will be timed to move traffic better.

A stoplight at Mirabeau Parkway and Pines Road originally on the plans won’t be built next summer because traffic doesn’t justify it yet, said city capital projects engineer Louis Graf.

He and other experts involved in the projects answered questions for about 50 people who came to a workshop at the CenterPlace community center Thursday night. Most live or do business nearby.

The last upgrade to the interchange took place on its south side in 1997. County officials have looked at fixing the failing intersection at Pines and Indiana since before city incorporation. The city finally gave the go-ahead for the project after reaching an agreement with developers looking to put more apartments and housing in the area but barred from doing so because it would make already overloaded intersections there even worse.

After a long period of negotiation, nine developers agreed to chip in $550,000 toward the $4.5 million road project. One of the development companies is owned by Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

As the start of the project gets closer, drivers can look for project updates, traffic alerts and other information on the City’s Web site, www.spokanevalley.org.