Sullivan Road Solutions Are Under Study

Sat., Jan. 23, 1999

By Angie Gaddy angieg@spokesman.com

The Spokane Valley’s booming growth has done a bang-up job to Sullivan Road.

Once a quiet farm road, cars now line up at congested intersections. The seven-lane road south of Interstate 90 has helped spur commercial growth.

Growing commuter and truck traffic north of the freeway has Spokane County engineers trying to loosen the grip of traffic gridlock.

Engineers want to widen Sullivan Road to seven lanes from the freeway north to Trent Avenue, hoping to relieve those head-banging holdups at Sullivan and Indiana.

While no formal plans have been laid on the table, engineers are considering the plan because traffic snarls will only worsen. By the year 2010, about 45,000 cars a day will travel Sullivan Road near the Spokane Industrial Park, said assistant county engineer Ross Kelley.

In 1997, about 17,000 cars passed the Sullivan and Euclid intersection each day, according to county traffic counts.

Trucks heading to and from industrial areas need better access to freeways. Commuters heading to work and shoppers heading to the Spokane Valley Mall need smooth-sailing trips.

But nowadays traffic backs up for blocks north of the Spokane River.

“That’s the reason why people are trying to avoid Sullivan,” Kelley said.

Plans to widen Bigelow Gulch Road as an urban connector between the North Side and the Valley figure to bring more traffic to Sullivan. That improved roadway would route traffic onto Sullivan via Forker Road. Engineers would like to have it done by 2005.

Once that connector is built, engineers estimate it would put 30,000 cars a day on Bigelow Gulch and Forker roads by 2020.

Widening Sullivan will have big costs since engineers will have to replace a bridge spanning the Spokane River and another crossing railroad tracks.

But Kelley said those bridges are in need of replacement and may qualify for extra funding.

Meanwhile a proposal for a new freeway on-ramp that would loop westbound under the Sullivan Road bridge and then dump traffic onto the freeway headed toward Spokane is in the works.

The new on-ramp would eiminate the need to turn left across Sullivan’s south-bound traffic to enter the freeway.

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