The Road To Progress New Interchange Is A Blessing For Retailers, But Residents See The End Of Their Neighborhood

Carey and Dave Gump live where the pavement ends.

In front of their house on Evergreen Road, patches of icy mud mix with gravel.

A half block away, five lanes of smooth, newly laid asphalt stretch nearly a mile south to Sprague Avenue.

“I’ll welcome the paved road,” said Carey Gump.

“We got the short end of the deal on the construction tie-up,” added her husband.

Winter weather stopped the state Department of Transportation from finishing the last part of the $23.4 million Evergreen interchange project.

For those who live along Evergreen, this winter will be the last before heavy traffic begins to transform the neighborhood. Many residents think it’s only a matter of time before they and their neighbors move out and businesses move in.

The Gumps have already been approached by a developer, since their block is zoned commercial.

Eventually, they plan on selling.

“We love the house and we love the area,” said Dave Gump. But eventually, it’s all going to be commercial, he said. “I’ve seen it happen on Sullivan and Pines.”

But that transformation will take years.

This winter, the Gumps will navigate the unfinished road.

“The final asphalt paving won’t happen until spring,” said DOT spokesman Al Gilson. “That’s a given.”

The half-block stretch of unpaved road near Mission Avenue is part of the state DOT’s project. The paved road to the south was done by Spokane County.

The northern part of the Evergreen interchange — which links Interstate 90 to the Spokane Valley Mall and Indiana Avenue — opened the day before Thanksgiving.

The DOT still has to finish the new Mission Avenue bridge. When finished, Evergreen Road will dip under the bridge and link up to I-90.

The Gumps used the new I-90 exit the day after Thanksgiving. They were driving down Sullivan Road to get to the Sears store at the Valley Mall when they noticed the traffic backing up at the turn into the mall.

“Where are we going?” Carey Gump asked as her husband steered onto I-90.

They got off at the Evergreen exit and snuck into the mall the back way. It worked perfectly, said Dave Gump.

“It’ll be good for the Valley,” he said.

The interchange seems to be working well so far, said the DOT’s Gilson. The new interchange is expected to take traffic off both Pines and Sullivan roads once it is completely finished.

“We have had a great week. I think that (the Evergreen interchange) was a part of it,” Valley Mall manager Jerry Irwin said of the busy shopping time right after Thanksgiving.

Larry Branting — who has lived two blocks south of the Gumps at Boone Avenue and Evergreen for 16 years — dreads the day when Evergreen Road opens.

County engineers expect traffic to jump from 6,000 cars a day to 20,000 almost immediately.

“When they open it, it’s just going to destroy the neighborhood. I prefer it this way. I hope it stays shut all winter,” said Branting.

Branting said he doesn’t know anyone in his neighborhood who is happy about the impending change.

The county’s newly widened Evergreen Road opened from Sprague to Broadway a month ago, but remains closed north of Broadway because the link to Mission Avenue and I-90 hasn’t been completed.

For the rest of the winter, Mission Avenue traffic is being detoured down Broadway via McDonald and Adams roads.

On Evergreen south of Broadway, seven houses hug the sidewalks of the newly-widened road.

All have “For Sale” signs in front of them.

Spokane County bought the properties for right-of-way as part of the road widening project and is now selling them.

None has sold yet, but there have been offers on a few and more than 100 requests for information, said Carl Guenzel, a sales associate for Kiemle & Hagood Company, which is handling the sale of the homes.

Guenzel said his guess is that Evergreen Road will eventually lose its residential feel.

“I think it’s still going to be commercial at some point,” he said.

“The county is being unrealistic in their thoughts that one side will be residential and one side will be commercial. Who is going to want to live on a street like that?”

The draft of the county’s comprehensive plan calls for the east side of Evergreen to remain residential, while the west side of the road will be opened up to mixed-use development. Mixed-use would include office complexes, apartments and some commercial development.

Branting lives on the east side of Evergreen. He said he hopes to eventually sell his house to a commercial developer.

But that time is a few years off. He wouldn’t move before his sons, now in high school, leave home.

The question, he said, is what to do with his house in the years between now and when it’s bulldozed to make way for a fast-food restaurant.

Map: How the Evergreen interchange will work when it’s done