Help At Hand For Traffic On N. Division; Ruby To Open Ribbon Cutting Monday Morning

Sat., July 9, 1994

Source: Mike Prager Staff Writer

Starting Monday, northbound drivers on Division Street will be diverted onto Ruby just north of the downtown bridge.

Nearly a year of work will be marked with the opening of the new arterial for northbound traffic.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for 9 a.m. Monday. Traffic will begin moving up Ruby about 10 a.m., said Al Gilson, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

Mayor Jack Geraghty, state Sen. Jim West and transportation commissioners will be on hand.

Flag crews will be stationed at major intersections and parking lots to make sure drivers don’t go the wrong way on the two, oneway streets after the switchover.

The new roadway is expected to improve traffic flow on the North Side by increasing the car-carrying capacity of the Division corridor.

Currently, Division north of the Spokane River carries about 32,000 cars a day. With the two, one-way streets in place, engineers expect the route to handle 50,000 cars without any trouble.

Ruby will have three lanes northbound, while Division will carry four lanes southbound. Such routes are known as couplets.

The transportation department spent $6.5 million on engineering and construction between the river and a crossover just north of North Foothills Drive.

Another $15 million was spent buying up private property along Ruby and on North Division between Euclid and Wellesley where widening of Division is planned.

Work now is beginning on Division to remove the center dividers and turn lanes. The entire roadway will be ground down and repaved for four southbound lanes. It will be done in segments so traffic can continue using Division southbound. Bus turnouts and landscaping are planned.

The work on lower Division is the first of three phases expected to increase the capacity of the arterial system from four to at least six lanes between the river and Francis Avenue.

Gilson said the state spent all of the money earmarked for the project in the current two-year budget, and will have to wait until at least July 1995 to begin the second phase.

The remaining two phases involve widening Division to six lanes from the lower couplet to Wellesley and from Wellesley to Francis.

Money for Division must be recommended by the Department of Transportation and approved by the Legislature next session.

The original cost estimate for all three phases was $25 million. Now officials expect to spend $37 million. The higher cost, blamed on commercial property prices, is the main reason for the delay in completion, Gilson said.

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