State Seeks Crossing-Free Highway 195 Stretch In Latah Valley Would Have Frontage Road And Interchanges

The state of Washington wants to close all of the crossings on U.S. Highway 195 in the Latah Valley and replace them with two interchanges.

Transportation engineers unveiled the proposal Wednesday to a gathering of local residents.

Their plan calls for interchanges at Hatch Road and Cheney-Spokane Road with a new frontage access road extending more than four miles.

“We want to eliminate at-grade crossings and left-turn movements,” said Larry Eik, project engineer for the state.

None of the changes is expected soon. The project has not been budgeted. Engineers haven’t even worked up cost estimates.

Eik said suburban growth in southwest Spokane has caused traffic to double on Highway 195 since 1980. The count last year was 16,000 vehicles a day, Motorists making routine trips to places like the grocery store are in danger of being hurt or killed, and the risk grows as traffic increases, officials said.

The state’s solution is to funnel traffic to safely designed interchanges with on-ramps and off-ramps and, thus, preserve the high-speed flow of Highway 195.

Neighbors who regularly use the highway challenged the engineers to rethink the plan.

They complained about being forced to go out of their way, and they want traffic lights instead.

“It doesn’t have to be a high-speed freeway,” said one man.

They also warned of environmental damage to the semirural valley.

Under the plan, the crossing at 16th Avenue would be closed in lieu of the new frontage road.

The crossing at Thorpe Road would be replaced with either an overpass or an underpass.

The only freeway connection at Thorpe Road would be a southbound exit.

Meadow Lane Road would get an overpass.

The new interchange at the Cheney-Spokane Road would be staggered so that northbound traffic would be served at Inland Empire Way and southbound traffic would get on and off at Cheney-Spokane Road.

An overpass would be built next to the existing railroad bridge over the highway near Inland Empire Way.

The interchange at Hatch Road would include a new span over Latah Creek.

The frontage road would parallel Highway 195 to the west along existing roads, an old railroad right of way and new street right of way.

The existing roads included in the plan from north to south are Lindeke Street, Marshall Road, CheneySpokane Road, Qualchan Drive and Meadow Lane Road.

Work on the plan dates back more than two years, and involves several government agencies as well as residents living near the highway.

The plan came out of last year’s U.S. Highway 195 Corridor Safety Improvement Study and this year’s “value engineering study,” which was intended to seek the best use of tax dollars.

State officials in August applied for amendments to the city’s comprehensive land-use plan to allow for the expanded road system.