Indian Trail Road Work Running Behind Schedule

The first phase of the Indian Trail Road improvement won’t be finished until mid-August, about nine weeks past the original completion date.

Design changes and efforts to work with developers planning their own projects along the stretch have caused most of the delays, according to a report to Spokane City Council on Monday.

Work on the second phase started this week.

The second phase reaches from Barnes Road to Ridgecrest. Trees are being removed to make way for the road widening, curbs and sidewalks.

The second phase is expected to be finished by mid-October, said Katy Allen, the city’s director of engineering services.

City officials have worked out an agreement with the contractor on the second phase so it doesn’t restrict traffic before 8:30 a.m., reducing delays for morning commuters.

Despite the delays and design changes, Allen said the total project is still expected to be done on budget, under $3.6 million.

Allen said coordinating the road improvements with developers planning projects along the route caused some of the delays. “In the long run, it will be less disruptive to residents,’ she said. Developers won’t have to come back next year or the year after to tear up the road to make improvements for their housing or shopping center projects.”

The Indian Trail widening was delayed early on when the city switched from utilitarian concrete ecology blocks to more attractive keystone blocks for building retaining walls on both sides of the street, at the request of the developer.

In addition, five right-turn lanes are being installed that weren’t in the original plan - three on west side of the road and two on the east. Four of the turn lanes are for Douglass projects, one is for Sundance Shopping Center.

Other work that still needs to be done along the stretch includes striping, installing the median curbing, adding the final layer of asphalt - called the “wearing course” - and placing landscaping.

Traffic signals will be installed at the Pacific Park-Strong Road intersection, at Barnes Road and at Shawnee.

Trees and shrubs will be planted in the center landscaping strips, which already have sprinkler systems. The swales on the sides of the road will be hydroseeded.

Indian Trail was originally scheduled to be widened to four travel lanes, but was scaled back to two lanes because of trouble obtaining right of way and less-thanexpected traffic in view of the Growth Management Act.