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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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City Council approves Ben Burr Trail upgrade

A jogger runs down the Ben Burr Trail, a mostly-unpaved hillside trail in the West Central neighborhood, which will soon be paved. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
A jogger runs down the Ben Burr Trail, a mostly-unpaved hillside trail in the West Central neighborhood, which will soon be paved. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com(509) 459-5454

The Spokane City Council on Monday approved a $1.1 million contract for widening, extending and paving the Ben Burr Trail in east Spokane.

The contract with N & N Excavation, of Mead, will result in a longer and more accessible trail that will be connected to other trail and bike path segments.

Residents of the East Central Neighborhood had complained that the trail project was damaging the character of the former interurban rail bed that had held a canopy of older trees and is unpaved.

Some of those trees are gone now. Some were saved in a modest realignment.

The contractor will build improvements on the existing trail between Liberty and Underhill parks while extending the trail northward to the Spokane River from Liberty Park.

City Councilwoman Amber Waldref said that she recalls attending a community meeting on the project in which a man who used a cane said the existing trail was not accessible to him.

The improvements to the existing trail and northward extension will be accessible to people with disabilities, Waldref said in an interview on Monday prior to voting in favor of the contract.

“My goal is a trail that everybody can use,” she said.

Federal funds are available for the project.

From Liberty Park, the trail will head north on a new 10-foot-wide sidewalk on the west side of the Perry Street underpass of Interstate 90.

It will then cross Second Avenue about 100 feet to the west of Perry Street to allow for better visibility of traffic for trail users trying to cross busy Second Avenue, said Dan Buller, of the city’s engineering services department.

It will head north along Erie Street to Front Avenue, passing beneath Sprague Avenue and the BNSF Railway tracks through existing underpasses.

The final leg of the trail will run along the south bank of the river and connect with the University District campus. That part of the trail will be included in a planned extension of Martin Luther King Jr. Way along the south side of the river, Buller said.

Completion of the MLK segment is expected next year.

Another leg of the trail will connect the Liberty Park segment to Third Avenue and Sherman Street. That is being designed so that the trail will be behind the sidewalk, providing additional protection from traffic for trail users, Buller said.