Widening Of 57th To Begin Next Month
Traffic on 57th Avenue has more than doubled in the past 11 years because of rapid growth on the South Side.
Spokane County engineers want to widen 57th this year to make it safer for the thousands of drivers who use it every day.
On Tuesday, the road builders held an open house at the Moran Prairie Grange Hall to explain their plans.
They want to spend $3.7 million to widen 57th with a center turn lane, two outside bicycle lanes, curbs and sidewalks. The project would run from Perry to the Palouse Highway. Much of the money is coming from federal transportation grants.
“Most people are in favor of it because of the safety issue,” said Greg Sweeney, a member of the Moran Prairie Neighborhood Association.
Traffic on 57th Avenue was measured at 5,800 cars a day in 1986. It increased to 13,200 cars a day in 1997.
Construction plans call for restricting traffic to one lane and making drivers wait for a pilot car to take them through the construction zone.
Work is scheduled to begin in mid-April and continue through the summer.
Some neighborhood activists are concerned the widening will encourage more commercial growth along 57th Avenue, an area that lacks a growth-management land-use plan.
Susan Brudnicki, president of the neighborhood association, said she thinks the county should complete its growth-management plan for the neighborhood before doing the road improvements.
“Some of us feel it’s premature,” she said.
County Engineer Bill Johns said the project is long overdue because of the heavy volume of traffic.
“In my opinion, 57th should have been widened a long time ago,” he said.
The project will include a stormwater collection system that eventually can be used in an areawide storm sewer. Pipes that are 31 inches in diameter will be buried along the right of way between the Palouse Highway and Cook Street.
Eight acres of land in three parcels near 57th and Cook are being purchased by the county for evaporation ponds to handle runoff from the roadway.
, DataTimes