Self-Taught Expert Lobbies For East-West Arterial Allan Fackenthall Says Route Would Relieve Clogged Streets

After sitting - not too patiently - through scores of traffic meetings, Allan Fackenthall decided transportation plans for Spokane and Stevens counties needed a solid dose of common sense.

He clearly recalls the December 1993 meeting in Deer Park that finally convinced him to take action.

“I couldn’t believe the preposterous ideas,” says Fackenthall, shaking his head.

So, for the last five years, the regular-guy-turned-traffic-expert has been selling one idea: an east-west arterial.

In his vision, the road stretches from U.S.

Highway 2 near NorthPointe Shopping Center to Airway Heights, taking thousands of cars off clogged Division, Maple and Francis streets and out of downtown.

“An arterial allows a distribution of traffic to the places it wants to go,” says Fackenthall. “A beltway implies exchanges. We don’t need that.”

Fackenthall’s arterial follows Hastings Road, crosses Indian Trail at the powerlines, crosses Seven Mile Bridge, then turns down Old Trails and Hayford roads, heading toward the airport.

Some say the idea is a good one. So why hasn’t it happened?

“There’s no cooperation between the city and county,” says Fackenthall. Born in 1917 at the foot of Big Sandy Road near Nine Mile Falls, Fackenthall has never strayed far from home. His relatives still live on the original homestead.

He was taught by his mother in a one-room schoolhouse, along with a dozen other children, near the intersection of Indian Trail Road and Rutter Parkway.

He graduated from North Central High School in 1933. Fackenthall still meets for lunch with 12 others from the graduating class.

He commuted daily on a bike to Whitworth College.

“Times were tough then,” he says, still as thin and wiry as he was in his college days.

That hard life may have been good training for Fackenthall’s determined mission to improve traffic problems now.

“I have a degree in common sense, not engineering.” says Fackenthall.

“The north-south freeway will eliminate 600 homes and cost $2 billion,” he says, flipping through pages of documents that fill his living room.

“The east-west arterial doesn’t disturb homes, would cost about $13 million and takes people where they want to go,” he adds. “It’s just too practical.”

The arterial would collect traffic from Deer Park and Suncrest. In addition, it circulates traffic around the city, helping to improve air quality.

Fackenthall says he’s had interest from senators and congressmen, but can’t get an audience with council members or the county.

Sen. Bob Morton, R-Orient, and the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation have encouraged Fackenthall. Morton says the plan would link traffic with I-90, avoiding downtown Spokane as it heads south from Stevens County.

“It would provide a big relief to downtown traffic in Spokane. It’s a good plan. I haven’t seen a better one,” Morton said.

“We’d have to use a combination of state and federal funding,” Morton adds. “We’ve been trying to tighten our belt, to hold onto our (Department of Transportation) finances for highway proposals like this.

“But with over 100 airports in the state, and the largest ferry system in the country, it isn’t easy,” he says.

Glenn Miles, manager of the Spokane Regional Transportation Council, says while there is no funding available, various options for just such an arterial are being considered.

“There’s been a lot of talk about an east-west arterial for North Spokane,” said Miles. “Over time it makes sense.

“We are just now starting to take a look and how it would work with today’s traffic volumes, and with the Interim Urban Growth Boundaries,” he said.

Miles says he’s looking at finding the most appropriate location. If the arterial is too far north, people won’t use it.

Even with the encouragement, Fackenthall says he’s frustrated.

“I’m one person, and I have a lot of other things to do,” he says.

Indeed, it can be hard to catch up with Fackenthall, who now lives in Spokane.

A long-time member of Garden Spot Grange, he’s also deputy master in the Washington Grange and the main contact for the noxious weed program. This time of year, his phone rings with requests for help with ridding yards and fields of spurge.

“I should be doing a lot more of that than this,” he says.

But still, he plugs away.

Fackenthall says the arterial could be easily financed with a modest gas tax.

“The motoring public should be willing to pay for something like this,” he says. “If you don’t want to pay the tax, you can reduce your tax bite by using transit instead of driving.

“It’s just too practical,” Fackenthall says.

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