Making Way Plans Drawn, Property Bought, Traffic Increasing - 10 Years Later, Work Still Hasn’t Started On New Sprague Interchange

Traffic on Interstate 90 is far worse today than it was when state engineers began drafting plans for reconstructing the Sprague Avenue interchange back in 1985.

A decade ago, engineers realized the onramps and offramps at the interchange were too short and steep and needed to be rebuilt.

Close to 60,000 cars per day were zooming along I-90 between downtown and the Spokane Valley then.

Five years later, project engineer Keith Metcalf called the project “our No. 1 priority in the Valley.” Work on the $20 million project likely would start in 1991 or 1992, Metcalf said.

More than 70,000 cars per day were making the trip between the Valley and the city when Metcalf made those statements in early 1990.

Since then, the traffic count on I-90 has eclipsed 100,000 per day.

Dozens of Spokane Valley residents were forced to move from their homes to make way for the new ramps at Sprague.

One of the county’s last drive-in theaters - the East Sprague - was shut down because the property was needed for an east-bound offramp.

Millions of tax dollars were spent on design work and to buy up property in the area and relocate residents.

Now, 10 years after highway officials announced their intent to rework the Sprague interchange, plans for the project sit on a shelf as transportation officials wait for the state Legislature to approve nearly $40 million in construction funds to complete the project.

No one’s sure when it will come.

“That’s a legislative question,” said Al Gilson, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation’s eastern region. “We can plan for improvements. What we can’t plan for is revenue.”

The delays aren’t sitting well with some people.

Lois Riddell and her husband, Russ, were forced to leave their home at the Valley Breeze trailer court in the 6300 block of East First in June 1992 to make way for the project.

The Riddells, who had lived at Valley Breeze for eight years and planned to spend the rest of their lives there, weren’t pleased.

They had a difficult time finding a new trailer park that had room for them and Lois’s 90-year-old mother, who lived in a separate trailer at Valley Breeze.

Lois Riddell, who is in her mid-70s, is even less happy today.

“You know, they made us move, what, almost three years ago, and they haven’t done one thing to that ramp. Nothing,” she said. “I just shake when I think about it.”

Gilson said the Riddells’ frustrations are understandable. The transportation department is growing impatient as well, he said.

“That’s an inherent problem in this industry,” he said. “On the outside, it looks like we’re not doing our jobs.”

But the department has been working plenty hard on the project, doing everything it can to get ready to go to work, Gilson said.

The department has spent nearly $16.5 million to do the preliminary work. The designs are finished and most of the property has been purchased.

Crews have begun razing or moving houses from a stretch of East Third Avenue north of I-90 recently in anticipation of construction.

The project is still one of the top priorities in the eastern region of the state, Gilson said, and the department is prepared to advertise for contractors to do the work next year.

Officials have submitted the project to the Legislature as part of a supplemental budget request, he said. It will be under consideration as the Legislature considers the budget for 1996-97.

“That puts the decision in the hands of the legislators,” Gilson said.

Scott Staley, an aide to state Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane Valley, said this week that his boss was aware the project was under consideration.

“Obviously, they’ll be looking at it soon,” Staley said.

It’s been in the legislators’ hands before, but they haven’t seen fit to fund it.

Other projects around the state have taken priority over the Sprague Avenue interchange and may well take priority again this time, Gilson said.

The Sprague interchange project is considered a “mobility” project, meaning its main goal is to make it easier for people to get around, he said.

More often than not, “safety” projects - designed to alleviate a particularly dangerous section roadway - take precedence over “mobility” projects, Gilson said.

And with a more dollar-conscience Legislature, all projects will be under heavy scrutiny. “As far as how this will shake out statewide, it’s hard to tell,” he said.

So it’s 10 years, and counting.