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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Large Valley road projects wrap up

Rob Bockemuehl cleans around a water valve as a road grader prepares the intersection of 24th Avenue and Evergreen Road for paving, Monday. (Dan Pelle)

Several large road construction projects are coming to an end in Spokane Valley, but don’t sigh with relief yet. A few more projects are waiting in the wings, though they promise to be shorter and less disruptive.

Half of Sprague Avenue between Evergreen and Sullivan roads has been paved and the final half of paving in the eastbound lanes is set to begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The paving will take place overnight and should be complete by Wednesday morning.

“Everything went well except for the gas line issue,” said engineering technician Pete Fisch, referring to a shallow gas line discovered during construction that had to be dug deeper.

Two lanes of the newly paved road will be closed to traffic on Wednesday so concrete traffic islands can be installed.

Evergreen Road between 16th and 24th avenues was set to open last evening, as was 32nd Avenue between Avalon and Best roads. Evergreen between 24th and 32nd avenues should reopen to traffic on Thursday, said project manager Craig Aldworth.

The project, which included a new water line installed by Vera Water and Power, was delayed past its original end date. “We were desperately trying to get the whole thing open before school started,” Aldworth said. “We had a water line associated with the project and that’s where the delays happened. They’ve been working weekends trying to get this thing open.”

Drivers will get a short break before some smaller projects are set to start on Sept. 10. University Road from Sprague to Main avenues will get some sidewalk and signal upgrades along with pavement grind and overlay. The project is expected to last two weeks and traffic will be down to one lane in each direction.

A short stretch of Mission Avenue between Pines and Union roads will get pavement grind and overlay, which should only take a week, Aldworth said. Traffic on Mission will be limited to one lane in each direction. “We’re staying out of the Pines and Mission intersection,” he said.

A two-week project to grind and overlay the pavement of Fancher Road between Sprague and Broadway avenues is expected to begin on Sept. 17. Work will take place during daylight hours during the first week and traffic will be down to one lane in each direction. Work shifts to nighttime during the second week.

A fourth project is also lined up, but the exact start date hasn’t been determined, Aldworth said. Crews will rip out areas of bad pavement on Argonne Road between Indiana and Montgomery avenues and replace it. “These are Band-Aids until we can concrete that whole section,” Aldworth said.

The project is expected to last a week. All the work will be done at night and traffic will be allowed to flow freely during the day. The city wanted to avoid clogging one of the city’s busiest arterials, he said.

“It would be backed out to I-90,” he said.