Public Can Help Plan Harvard Road Project

Sat., Aug. 13, 1994

By Adam Lynn adaml@spokesman.com

Spokane County engineers will hold a public meeting Aug. 24 to take input on plans for a new bridge and other improvements on Harvard Road.

The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Otis Orchards Elementary, E22000 Wellesley.

Preliminary plans call for replacing the 38-year-old, two-lane bridge across the Spokane River with a fourlane span.

Engineers also plan several improvements on Harvard Road itself, which links Interstate 90 to Otis Orchards.

They want to expand Harvard from two lanes to four from the bridge north to Euclid Ave. and construct a left-turn lane at Euclid.

A two-way turn lane also is envisioned south of the bridge at the Centennial Trail access area.

Sidewalks and a wide shoulder would be added to the stretch to accommodate bicycle traffic.

The entire project will cost about $3.5 million and will be paid for with county, state and federal money.

Engineers report that the project is necessary “with traffic increasing on this roadway, due to commercial and residential development.”

The county closed the Harvard Road bridge for two months in the summer of 1992 after it began separating in the middle.

Engineers suspected overweight trucks illegally crossing the bridge caused the damage, which took $60,000 to fix. The state Department of Transportation recently put the span on top of its bridge replacement priority list.

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