Amy Cannata

There's no getting around the fact that getting around downtown Spokane this summer is going to be an adventure. But transportation officials have been preparing for months for the Interstate 90 viaduct repaving project set to begin in mid-May. It's needed to repair deep, deep ruts.

Finishing early will mean a sweet bonus for contractors on two Spokane street projects this year, and less aggravation for drivers. The city of Spokane is offering incentives to the contractors repaving 29th Avenue and working on the west side water main project running from Inland Empire Way and Ninth Avenue to Third Avenue and Maple Street.

If you just can't take it anymore, give your local police department a call. Area traffic cops say they take seriously citizen complaints about patterns of poor driving in specific neighborhoods and locations.

An early morning fire engulfed an apartment building under construction on the Gozaga University campus at press time on Monday, sending flames and embers into the night sky. At least a dozen firetrucks were battling the blaze as of 1 a.m. The building was to open next year as a 200-unit apartment complex on the corner of Ruby and Boone, said Katie O'Neill, a GU residence director who was on call Monday.

It's time for Spokane to move forward with an east-west light rail system, said members of Spokane Transit's light rail steering committee Wednesday after six years of studying mass transit options for Spokane County. But how Spokane Transit would pay to build such a system remains undetermined.

Imagine a barricade of cars on the freeway, all driving the speed limit. The drivers aren't breaking the law, but they sure are ticking off those behind them who can't pass – some to the point of road rage. That's just what a group of Atlanta college students did in their award-winning short movie "A Meditation on the Speed Limit," part of the annual college contest Campus MovieFest.

March is a month of confusion. Is it time to take off the studded tires, preserving them and area roads, or do you hold out until the last possible legal moment in case that late March snowstorm hits?

We're all in it together. North, south, east, west – it doesn't matter. If you drive around here, you're in for a bumpy ride.

Orchard Prairie is the type of place where some people move to get away from it all on a few dozen rural acres. Audrey Weeks and her family have enjoyed their relative peace and quiet there for 38 years. But just down the hill from her home, it's a different world. Drivers zoom by on Bigelow Gulch as a quick shortcut between the North Side of Spokane and Spokane Valley.

More trains derailed in Spokane County last year than in any other county in Washington, with nine accidents reported to the Federal Railroad Administration through November. Most were minor mishaps, involving slow-moving trains in local rail yards. There were no serious injuries or hazardous material releases, but the derailments caused almost $850,000 in damage to rail equipment and lines.

One less "When will we get there?" whine on the way to Silverwood could be the most rewarding benefit of an upcoming project to widen Highway 95 between Wyoming Avenue and Ohio Match Road. The 5-mile-plus, two-lane stretch of highway just north of Hayden is sandwiched between two four-lane sections. And with increased development in the area, it's time to start planning to widen it to a four-lane divided highway, said Idaho Transportation Department project engineer Rick Bailey.