Repaving Monroe St. Bridge Only A Small Step

Fri., Aug. 6, 1999

Some Spokane residents may think repaving the Monroe Street Bridge is like using masking tape to fix a foot-wide hole in the roof.

But the full-blown, $13 million repair job the bridge needs is at least five years away, said Eldon Brown of the city’s Construction Services Department. “The bridge full-out would not hold out that long.”

The $250,000 repaving project currently under way will keep the bridge functional until then, Brown said.

The project should be done by this weekend.

The future of the Monroe Street Bridge is closely tied to that of the proposed Lincoln Street bridge. And that project is tangled up in court.

If the Lincoln Street bridge project moves ahead, the Monroe bridge will be part of a couplet. If the former dies, the latter might be widened to handle more traffic, said Katie Allen of Planning and Engineering Services.

A consulting firm currently is studying the city’s options regarding the Monroe Street Bridge, Allen said.

The bridge hasn’t been repaved for at least 15 years, Allen said. The current project “is just a temporary fix until we can decide where to go.”

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