Engineer For Proposed Freeway Meets Residents

The top engineer for a new north-south freeway faced some of the hundreds of East Spokane residents who could lose their homes to construction, and promised to help them.

“It’s my intention to work from this day on with East Central,” said Keith Martin, of the state Department of Transportation.

“You are the neighborhood that’s being asked to bear the brunt for this new facility.”

Martin appeared Tuesday night at a meeting of the East Central Neighborhood Council to explain what the state has in mind.

Nearly 450 homes could be taken out in East Central alone, making it the neighborhood to suffer the greatest housing impacts from freeway work.

Construction would include an elevated interchange for the north-south freeway, as well as expansion of collector lanes along Second and Third avenues to ease the crush of traffic on Interstate 90.

The state spent six years preparing its environmental impact statement for the project.

Even so, Martin said he’s not satisfied that planners have come up with the right solutions to the complicated interplay of local and regional needs.

He said he is going to push for another study to make sure that what’s built in East Central is the best solution for the neighborhood.

“This is pretty complex, and I think it’s going to take an extended period of time to study it,” Martin said.

Carolyn Jacobs, member of a traffic subcommittee in East Central, said the neighborhood would be eager to participate.

Some residents at the meeting complained that transportation officials are targeting East Central because it has low property values.

Diane Spano charged the state with intentionally keeping quiet about their plans to minimize opposition in East Central.

“When the people aren’t informed, they can’t do anything,” she said.

One man said he stands to lose his home.

“All of the good memories you’ve had in your house, you can kiss them goodbye,” he said.

Another woman said she was relocated to a new home when the freeway was initially built in the 1960s and life went on just fine. She said she isn’t worried about being displaced a second time.

Others said the freeway is inevitable.

“If there were an easier place (for the freeway) to go, it would have been done,” said neighbor Mike Eckel. “Some people are going to lose out in the luck of the draw.”

DOT’s Martin said the north-south freeway has been discussed since 1946 and the proposed corridor is as close to the heart of the city as a freeway could get at today’s property prices.

Construction is expected to start in 2001 on the northern portions of the freeway from Wandermere to the south, and the cost is estimated at $125 million between Wandermere and the Spokane River.

It will take at least 10 years - and maybe 20 - before work would begin on a series of projects to link I-90 to the north-south freeway and to expand capacity along I-90.

Those elements are estimated to cost $650 million.

Under the plan, I-90’s six through-lanes would be flanked on either side by three collector lanes to provide local access between Liberty Park and the Sprague overpass, bringing the total number of lanes to 12.

Homes would be demolished along Second and Third avenues as well as on interchange alignments.

Details about how local traffic would get on, off and across the freeway are still undecided, Martin said. But, he added, it’s obvious the Thor-Freya interchange needs improving.

He said limited funds are available for smaller property purchases now, but no large-scale acquisitions can occur until funding is approved by the Legislature.

As a result, the state won’t prevent large property owners from pursuing plans, including Judy Hart’s proposal for a new Fred Meyer at Third and Thor, and Glen Cloninger’s application for an expanded Tapio Office Center at Second and Freya.

Hart was at the meeting.

“I can’t tell Judy Hart she can’t build on her property,” Martin said. “She’d slap me with a reverse condemnation suit so fast it would make your head spin.”