Fish Lake Trail’S New Paving To Begin At Scribner Road Project Will Be Finished Next Spring

Paving on two more miles of the Fish Lake Trail is being changed to a new location and, because of that, the work won’t be finished until next spring.

The city of Spokane, one of the trail developers, wants to spread asphalt pavement on a stretch of former railroad bed starting at Scribner Road near Marshall.

Initially, the city sought to pave a section of the trail just south of Interstate 90 in the Latah Valley neighborhood.

The change is being made to accommodate the state highway department’s planning for new freeway access roads along U.S. Highway 195.

City and state officials have been cooperating for years on the development of the old Union Pacific Railroad right of way between Spokane and Cheney.

Eventually, parks officials hope to have a fully paved trail running between the two cities, and possibly all the way to Pasco on the abandoned Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway rail bed.

A year ago, the state parks department and the city of Cheney dedicated a three-mile section of trail from Fish Lake to the Cheney-Spangle Road, the first paved portion on the trail corridor. That section of the trail has parking areas and restroom facilities.

The Union Pacific right of way was purchased by the city of Spokane in 1991 for $400,000. The state contributed $100,000 to hold the rail corridor for possible highway use as well.

At the time, the line was valued at nearly $1 million, but Union Pacific gave what amounted to $570,000 worth of the real estate as a gift to the public, said Dennis Beringer, real estate manager for Spokane.

Now, the state Department of Transportation is studying alternatives to preserve the limited-access flow of Highway 195.

One idea is to build frontage roads along the freeway to funnel traffic to a handful of interchanges in the Latah Creek Valley.

A frontage road along the rail corridor would allow motorists to access the freeway from Thorpe Road.

Beringer said the city wants the state to develop a paved trail in conjunction with a frontage road.

By delaying trail development in the Latah Valley neighborhood, city and state officials are preserving options for both highway and trail uses.

Ironically, money for the paving next year came from the federal highway fund, which included a relatively small pot of money for alternative types of transportation, such as trail routes.

The city has a $300,000 grant from that fund, and federal highway officials have agreed to continue the grant eligibility until next spring, said Paul Crutchfield of the Spokane Parks Department.

Crutchfield said Scribner Road was chosen because it has road access and some off-road parking. Also, it is closer to the currently paved stretch from Fish Lake to Cheney.

As more grant money becomes available, he said, another section along Queen Lucas Lake would be paved to create an uninterrupted stretch of trail from Scribner Road to the Cheney-Spangle Road.

“Chances are, it will take several grants for the different pieces,” Crutchfield said. “We know it is going to happen.”