City Chips In On Trent Avenue Study

The Spokane City Council on Monday voted unanimously to kick in $80,000 toward an environmental study of the proposed Trent Avenue realignment.

The balance of the $300,000 study will be paid by Washington Water Power Co., the state Department of Transportation and the Joint Center for Higher Education.

The state needs to replace a deteriorating Trent Avenue bridge that crosses the Spokane River west of Hamilton.

Early plans call for building a new leg of Trent beneath the James Keefe Bridge on the south river bank, tying it into the existing Trent Avenue via a three-way intersection near Union Gospel Mission.

There are several options for the realignment’s path.

Rerouting Trent to the south would eliminate the need for a new bridge and make way for possible expansion of the Riverpoint Higher Education Park.

The environmental study will look at possible contamination left by an abandoned rail yard, said Mayor Jack Geraghty. “It was always kind of an industrial area.”

, DataTimes