County Connection Spokane County Pursuing Plan To Widen Rural Highways And Improve Valley’S Link To The North Side

The winding paths of Forker and Bigelow Gulch roads are farm routes no longer.

For years, Pleasant Prairie farmers puttered along with machinery and equipment. As time wore on, the roar of passing semi-trucks and commuter traffic became more common than the chugging of tractors.

That roar could soon become louder.

This week, Spokane County commissioners approved a plan that could turn these two-lane roads into a high-traffic corridor connecting the Spokane Valley and the North Side, part of a countywide beltway system.

The county’s plan for such an urban connector system calls for widening Forker and Bigelow Gulch roads to four lanes and connecting them to Sullivan Road in the Valley. Bigelow Gulch feeds onto Francis Avenue on the city’s North Side.

County engineers hope this improved roadway will help move trucks carrying freight, as well as a growing volume of commuter traffic, between the Valley and the North Side.

“It is a great improvement for the Valley,” said assistant county engineer Ross Kelley, who headed the urban connector project. “Really it is a help for people in the Valley.”

Now the plan heads to state legislators’ desks. County officials hope to get some state funding.

The plan, which received criticism from city planners and others saying it would induce sprawl outside the urban area, also involves extending the planned Valley Couplet all the way to Liberty Lake.

Currently, the Valley Couplet’s first phase will run along along Sprague and Second avenues from the Sprague Avenue freeway interchange to University Road.

County engineers would like to have the entire project completed by 2005.

A controversial roadway linking the Valley with the South Hill was scrapped by commissioners because of concerns about its impact to the Dishman Hills Natural Area.

Opponents of the plan remain wary.

“We’ve seen this plan go and come back and we have a little skepticism,” said Michael Hamilton, president of Dishman Hills Natural Area Association. “I’m glad to see it go. It’s one less thing to worry about.”

Those who live and work along the planned urban connector routes worry about increased traffic and safety.

County engineers plan to connect Forker Road to the north end of Sullivan Road, bringing the arterial between East Valley High School and East Valley Middle School.

They estimate the roadway would handle about 30,000 vehicles a day by 2020.

School officials worry the current traffic problems will only worsen when commuter and freight traffic come barreling though.

“It’s absolutely going to be a disaster for us,” said Karen Campbell, who oversees the crosswalk program for East Valley Middle School. Motorists speed during rush hour and don’t slow for children on their way to school, she said. “I can’t imagine how it’s going to be with a four-lane road,” Campbell said. “It’s going to be awful.”

East Valley High school students cross Sullivan to play sports in the fields behind the middle school. During summer, softball games attract players and spectators who park along Sullivan Road, said Tom Crouch, school district business manager.

One solution school officials are pushing for is a pedestrian overpass linking the two campuses, Crouch said.

East Valley High School Principal Jeff Miller said the road improvements could be beneficial to the school if traffic lights are added to help with student traffic.

And plenty of his staff live on the North Side and use Bigelow Gulch to get to and from work daily.

Residents living along Bigelow Gulch have mixed feelings. Some, like Tana Trobaugh, who lives at the intersection of Bigelow Gulch and Weile roads, says the new roadway will destroy the character of the prairie.

“There is a real sense of loss. I guess we would have hoped they would have come up with another plan.” said Trobaugh, who lives in her grandmother’s farmhouse. “I understand it’s going to be heavily traveled, but they’re going to do it without me sitting by.”

Others, like Sue Mauro, who lives east of the Bigelow Gulch and Argonne road intersection, say it’s much needed.

“I’m not looking forward to an increase in traffic, but if it’s safer, I applaud it.”

State legislators say they’re supportive of Spokane transportation plans, but the North Side freeway tops their list this session.

Rep. Alex Wood, D-3rd District, who sits on the House Transportation Committee, said Spokane legislators can’t be divided on transportation issues. First, and foremost, is getting funding for the freeway while there’s a chance of federal money.

“We don’t want to show a split because we’re trying to get money for the North-South Freeway,” he said. He said the urban connector plan is a good idea, and the Bigelow Gulch corridor could be worked in as part of the North-South Freeway.

Rep. Lynn Schindler, R-4th District, who also sits on the transportation committee, said she hasn’t seen the plan yet, but will gladly support anything to help relieve congestion and traffic problems.

“Any money that can be possibly headed for the district, I will be hunting for, I will be asking for,” she said. “Spokane doesn’t want to get like the West Side. We want our transportation problems headed off while it’s still feasible (to fund them).”

Map: Unpopular connectors scrapped