Stoplight Planned At Airway Heights Intersection Signal Will Be At Highway 2, Garfield Road In/Around: Airway Heights

An Airway Heights intersection that many say is dangerous will get a stoplight to slow speeding traffic.

But when the light will be installed is still up in the air.

“If they put the light in there tomorrow, it wouldn’t be too soon,” said Fire District 10 Chief Dick Gormley. The West Plains fire station is one of several businesses situated at the intersection of U.S. Highway 2 and Garfield Road, where traffic whizzes by at 55 mph and residents race across the street to get to a bus stop.

Currently the intersection has only a flashing emergency light that can be tripped by the fire district. Turn lanes in all four directions mean long waits for some drivers.

“People become impatient and take chances,” said Gormley.

Angry business owners and residents have gathered hundreds of names on a petition to get a light installed but say that until now their pleas have been disregarded.

“My view is, let’s get it in now,” said Irv Zakheim, owner of Zak Designs, a wholesale dinnerware distributor headquartered at the intersection.

“We have people that take the bus. They’re running because there’s no crosswalk.

“In the fall, in winter, when the fog starts rolling in and the roads get slicker, it’s a big concern.”

Metropolitan Mortgage Co., which owns a 100-acre business park at the intersection, agreed to install the light when it began developing the property. The Airway Business Centre and surrounding area now includes fast-food restaurants, gasoline stations and a storage facility.

But Metropolitan officials say they had to wait for the go-ahead from the state Department of Transportation, which conducted a study this summer to measure traffic volume at the corner.

“The bottom line is we had to do all the traffic studies to make sure (a light) was warranted,” said Damon Smith, an engineering coordinator for Summit Property, which handles Metropolitan’s real estate portfolio.

The traffic studies revealed that, during an afternoon peak hour, more than 2,000 vehicles passed through the intersection.

“The amount of traffic on Garfield and the highway - the combination of those volumes - was sufficient to allow a light,” said Transportation Department planner Greg Figg.

Those who live in the area say they didn’t need a study to confirm what they already know: Traffic is getting worse in the steadily growing city west of Spokane.

“Just in the way Airway Heights has grown, there are a lot more people coming through,” said Zakheim, who says he’s watched traffic balloon in his six years in Airway Heights.

Smith said Metropolitan is now looking into design and construction work on the light. He had no estimate on when the light would be installed, or how much it would cost.

Earlier this year Metropolitan installed the existing emergency light, which cost the company about $100,000, he said.

Business owners say they’re hoping the light will be installed before the end of the year.

“A lot of times, they won’t justify a light until someone gets killed,” said Gormley. “I don’t like numbers and traffic counts to dictate life and death situations.”