Meetings Planned On 2 Valley Road Projects

Sat., Jan. 29, 2000

By Trinity Hartman trinityh@spokesman.com

Valley residents will get a chance to learn about two upcoming county road projects next week.

The county Public Works Department will hold separate meetings on the Bigelow Gulch/Forker Road project and the Valley Corridor project.

“We need to hear from commuters and people who use the roads as well as neighbors,” said Jim Haines, the county’s program development engineer. “We need to make decisions based on the public as a whole.”

The county hopes to find funding for both projects by 2002, Haines said.

The projects are a high priority for the county because they are busy urban commuter routes, Haines said.

The $25 million Bigelow Gulch/Forker Road project calls for widening Bigelow Gulch and Forker Road to four lanes with paved shoulders.

The project would be done in several phases, with the first priority being widening and possibly straightening the curvy stretch between Havana and Argonne.

The county has identified four possible routes between Havana and Argonne, all of which call for at least slight deviations from the existing roadway, Haines said.

At the east end of the project, engineers are considering banking Bigelow Gulch into Forker. The road would then continue between East Valley junior and senior high schools to hook up with Sullivan Road.

The Valley Corridor project is designed to alleviate congestion along Sprague Avenue.

The project could include building a couplet to parallel Sprague. The department wants public comment before deciding whether to continue the couplet past where it currently stops at University Road, Haines said.

The county has already finished the couplet between Dishman-Mica Road and University. That portion could be open in 2001.

After getting public comment on the proposed projects, Jones & Stokes Associates Inc. of Bellevue will begin environmental studies. Those studies could take anywhere from six months to a year or more to complete, Haines said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: OPEN HOUSE

Spokane County Engineers will hold an open house on the Bigelow Gulch/Forker Road project Wednesday from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Bigelow Gulch Central Grange, 7001 E. Bigelow Gulch Road. A second open house on the Valley Corridor will be held Thursday from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the large cafeteria at University High School, 10212 E. Ninth. For more information contact Spokane County engineers at 477-3600.

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