Project To Shut Down Grand For A Month Work Scheduled To Be Done By Sept. 16; Firm Faces Severe Penalties If It Runs Late

Grand Boulevard will close to traffic on Monday as the city gets started on the long-awaited repaving of the busy South Hill arterial.

Inland Asphalt Co. of Spokane won an $880,300 contract from the city and has agreed to finish the work by Sept. 16.

The company is planning to work 12- to 14-hour shifts to complete the job on time, said Malcolm Bowie, city field engineer.

If the project runs past Sept. 16, Inland will lose $4,000 a day in contract penalties, city officials said.

Grand will be closed to all traffic between 29th and 14th avenues.

Motorists will be directed to use Bernard Street and 14th Avenue as detour routes.

Grand will remain open, but will be restricted, between 14th Avenue and 8th, and McClellan at the west side of Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Initially, the city had talked about keeping at least one lane of traffic open between 14th and 29th, and allowing the contractor up to 10 weeks to finish the job.

Business owners along Grand objected to that plan, saying the prolonged construction schedule could be fatal to their businesses along the busy street.

City administrators agreed to completely close Grand south of 14th Avenue and to seek a shortened construction schedule at a higher cost.

As it turned out, the Inland bid came in at about the same amount as the original construction estimate without the accelerated schedule.

The main reason the street is being closed is to make room for a complete reconstruction of the road bed from 16th to 21st avenues.

Water has penetrated the pavement from below, causing it to bulge and buckle and form potholes. The contract calls for complete excavation of the roadbed for those five blocks, installation of new gravel and an impermeable membrane to prevent water from seeping back into the pavement.

The rest of Grand will be ground down and then covered with a new asphalt layer.

Under the city’s noise ordinance, work cannot begin before 6 a.m. or extend past 10 p.m.

Residents in adjoining neighborhoods said they are concerned about an increase in traffic, especially along winding Garfield Road to the east and near Roosevelt Elementary School at 14th Avenue and Bernard Street to the west.

Last week, the Spokane City Council approved borrowing $2.66 million on a short-term loan to pay for repaving five of the bumpiest arterials in the city. The council hopes to convert that to long-term financing should voters approve a local gas tax of 2.3 cents per gallon.

Spokane County commissioners are considering the gas tax proposal for this fall’s ballot.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map: Grand Boulevard repaving detour