Retailers looking forward to Sprague completion
Merchants and motorists on Sprague Avenue in Spokane Valley will be happy to know that construction along the heavily traveled corridor is going to be finished in less than two weeks.
The last stages of work will start Tuesday evening, when old pavement will be ground down in preparation for resurfacing. The grinding work will start at Evergreen Road at 6 p.m. and move west in segments to University Road. The work each day will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
New pavement will be laid down starting next Monday through Sept. 17 under the same schedule of hours, said Carolbelle Branch, spokeswoman for Spokane Valley.
Work on Sprague started in mid-May.
“We are really looking forward to getting it done,” she said.
She’s not the only one. Merchants along the route have been trying to keep their businesses going during reconstruction and installation of new concrete intersections at Pines, McDonald and Evergreen roads.
The intersection at Evergreen Road was the last to undergo construction, and that job was completed late last month.
Rusty Keele, owner of Rusty’s Produce, said he decided to move his fruit and vegetable stand from Evergreen and Sprague to the west, near Shopko, to get away from the construction work at Evergreen.
“It’s been a mess off and on all year,” he said.
The work began, he said, “right in the middle of my cherry season.” He said his regular customers have been loyal in continuing to make their purchases, but he is not making a profit this year.
The concrete intersection work was funded through Spokane Transit Authority’s federal allocations, which account for 80 percent of the $2.9 million in improvements.
The $2.74 million repaving is part of the federal government’s economic stimulus package approved earlier this year.
County work on Five Mile Road begins today
Starting today, North Five Mile Road from Berridae to Waikiki roads is going to be closed to traffic for about a month while Shamrock Paving Co. resurfaces the pavement, county engineers said.
A city project currently has Five Mile Road closed on its southern segment along the bluff.
That will leave Cedar and Austin roads as the two main access routes up the bluff.
Paul Lennemann, construction engineer for Spokane County, said the intersection of Cedar Road and Country Homes Boulevard will be changed temporarily to allow free right turns for southbound traffic onto Country Homes. Left turns there will be prohibited for motorists seeking to go northbound on Country Homes. Drivers will have to detour to Five Mile Road and then return northbound.
Kootenai County licensing office will be opening later
The Kootenai County vehicle licensing offices at 451 Government Way in Coeur d’Alene and 120 E. Railroad Ave. in Post Falls will have new hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting on Tuesday. The later opening time will allow staffers to keep up with paperwork.
Cheney-Spokane Road traffic will detour to Qualchan Road
Turns are not going to be allowed starting Tuesday from U.S. Highway 195 onto Cheney-Spokane Road during construction of a new southbound exit lane. Traffic will be detoured to Qualchan Road, which is the next intersection about one mile south.
The project was funded to improve safety at the intersection, where a 16-year-old girl was killed last winter.
Highway 395 repaving work proceeding northward
Part of the repaving work on U.S. Highway 395 from the Spokane County line to Loon Lake is going to be completed by Tuesday, transportation officials said, but a separate paving job north of Loon Lake to Immel Road is continuing.