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October 4, 2010 in City
Final touches on Second Avenue will likely come next year
Downtown construction headaches that have frustrated motorists and business owners could extend into next year.
City Engineer Mike Taylor said the Second Avenue project has run into complications partly because old, mostly unused vaults – sidewalk entrances into the basements of buildings – are unstable and must be torn out.
“We’re running into a variety of things that have really been a challenge,” Taylor said.
He said crews will push forward and the road will be paved and fully open when the 2010 construction season ends. But crews may have to come back next year to put down a final layer of pavement.
There’s an upside to finishing next year: It allows workers to fix problems resulting from settling over winter, Taylor said.
Second Avenue west of Howard Street has been torn up since July. While the street has remained open most of the time, it has been reduced to one bumpy lane.
Some business owners say they’re frustrated by the length of the project, which is scheduled to last into November. They also say they’ve been hurt by the misconception that the street is closed.
Scott Thompson, owner of the Chevron station at Third Avenue and Lincoln Street, said his business is down significantly because of construction.
“They’re killing us, downtown,” Thompson said. “They have done the whole job for the convenience of the contractor, not for the convenience of the general public.”
Thompson said the contract with Inland Asphalt should have included an incentive to finish early and a requirement to work evenings and weekends.
Taylor said that while not in the construction contract, crews will soon start working weekends and longer hours. But Taylor and city leaders said creation of an incentive or requiring a more intensive work schedule likely would have raised the contract price.
Until recently, city officials had worried that they may not be able to complete the full list of street projects promised to voters under the 2004 voter-approved property tax because construction costs had skyrocketed in the first few years of work. The recent recession sent costs down, allowing city leaders to forecast completion on budget.
Delivering projects at or under budget will help convince voters that the city is responsible enough to handle a new round of street projects, officials say.
David Wells, owner of Wild Sage American Bistro, said he was warned by the city about the prospect of construction disruptions five years ago when he got his business license. He said road crews are doing “a great job.”
Business has been off about 30 percent since work began, Wells said. He would prefer to have work go faster, but he said he doesn’t blame the city for not requiring contractors to work nights or weekends.
“If it costs us more as taxpayers, I don’t know that people are going to agree to that,” Wells said.
Brent Christensen, general manager of Larry H. Miller Honda, stressed that Second Avenue remains open.
“It’s affecting our traffic a lot,” Christensen said. “I just want it to get done.”
MAC faces angry crowd 
drywitt99 on October 04 at 6:17 a.m.
Maybe we could just leave Second Avenue all torn up”
The mountain bikers would love the challenge!!
And we could save the cost painting those bike lanes.
liarsinnews on October 04 at 7:49 a.m.
Excellent suggestion, drywitt99. I got thinking though, what about the preplanned stage? Is it too much to expect the city engineers to anticipate that the vaults and old time uses of the under sidewalk stuff needed attention? No sense whining about it now. All the more reason to implement drywitt99`s plan idea.
eagleproducer on October 04 at 8:48 a.m.
dick: Intelligence and foresight from City Hall? This is still Spokane we are talking about, right?
This whole project is a joke. I walk up and down the construction corridor several times a week during business hours and lo and behold always see tons of construction workers mainly doing nothing while one person runs a piece of heavy equipment.
I also talked to a man operating a grader near Rosauers and he was all bent out of shape because the contractor has been jacking them around with their pay.
MrNatural on October 04 at 9:12 a.m.
Normally I try to be understanding about these things but I have to completely agree with the story’s quote “They have done the whole job for the convenience of the contractor, not for the convenience of the general public.”
I know it is not good form to say disparaging remarks about the contractor(s) of this crappy work but anyone with experience in these matters in this area is aware of the crappiness that is frequently associated with this outfit. So to put a crappy outfit on an important and integral urban road project just because of low bid is moronic and destine for problems. And these vault and foundation issues should have been anticipated before they bit off more than they could chew.
I must say in my 40 years of driving experience (including large cities along the east coast) that this is the roughest, sloppiest and most poorly planned road project I have ever contended with.
anitag on October 04 at 5:22 p.m.
The tearing up of Second Avenue has made it a nightmare for students trying to catch the Jefferson Park station 66/65 Bus to EWU. The street closures change weekly and the construction flaggers aren’t the least bit helpful (or friendly) in pointing frustrated drivers to an alternate route. They told me that they have no idea which streets will be closed next as plans change weekly! Very badly planned. This headache started in Spring quarter and the end seems far away.
Can’t the construction people figure out what they’re going to do, plan ahead and leave alternate map routes on student cars so we know which streets will be closed in advance? Instead, students, staff and teachers at EWU are left frustrated, we miss our busses and wind up late for classes?
Ed Byrnes on October 05 at 6:12 p.m.
A quick perusal of blueprints would have alerted the contractor to the cellar entrances. Due diligence on the part of the city would have recognized when a bidder did not complete this necessary assessment step.
I say we change our name to “Spo-can’t.”