Grant stokes jobs, dreams of efficient traffic flow

As a concept, the North Spokane Corridor is nearly at the equivalent of retirement age, having first been dreamed up some 64 years ago.

As an actuality, however, it’s still in its developmental stages. It’s beginning to get on its feet and walk, and those early steps are rewarding to watch.

The $35 million in federal stimulus spending that authorities announced last week will provide 3.7 miles of southbound lanes between Francis Avenue and Farwell Road. When that stretch is finished next year, about a third of the 10.5-mile link between Interstate 90 and U.S. 395 near Wandermere will be finished.

What will become the northbound lanes were opened to traffic in a two-way configuration last summer.

While completing the corridor will require another $1.6 billion of funding – to include the challenging and costly crossing of the Spokane River at the south end – the notion of having nearly four miles of the long-debated corridor so near to readiness is exhilarating for transportation planners in this area.

Officials have tabulated about 225,000 daily north-south movements of cars and trucks in Spokane, all of it through the city’s neighborhoods and business districts. Such a dangerous, time-consuming, air-polluting, traffic-congesting and sometimes nerve-racking exercise in inefficiency.

The movement of people and freight should be and can be handled more smoothly. And once the full, limited-access route is open, truckers will reduce to minutes the time it takes them to travel between I-90 and U.S. 395, the pathway to and from Canada. More than 7 million tons of freight moves along the corridor every year.

That will save shippers both time and money while freeing Spokane motorists from avoidable traffic congestion and relieving much of the 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide generated when the large rigs creep from intersection to intersection and sometimes tie up traffic through multiple signal changes while they navigate their semis through tight turns.

Meanwhile, the construction funding also means an estimated 106 jobs during the peak of activity. That’s a welcome bonus anytime, but especially in a harsh recession. But in the long term, it’s the transportation value of the North Spokane Corridor that has kept it in the community’s imagination for more than a generation. It’s exciting to see dreams being fulfilled, even a step at a time.