Widening Planned For Cheney’S Second St. In/Around: Cheney

Thu., June 22, 2000

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

There will be more widening and repair work on Cheney’s streets next year under an aggressive arterial improvement program.

Public Works Director Don MacDonald said the city recently won approval for a federal grant to pay for reconstruction of Second Street from state Highway 904 to Elm Street.

Work is tentatively slated for 2001. It will include installation of curbs, sidewalks and a redesigned intersection at Second and Elm.

Currently the intersection is a fiveway stop where North Second Street meets Second and Elm. MacDonald said the intersection will be redesigned, probably with a traffic divider.

“It is very confusing,” MacDonald said of the existing intersection.

A traffic circle is being considered but may not work at the intersection because of the hilly grade on Elm Street, he said.

The work on Second Street is a $280,000 project.

Also next year, the city is expected to receive federal grants to pay for widening and improvements to Salnave, Mullinix and Cheney-Spokane roads as well as work on Clay and Sixth streets.

Salnave, Mullinix and Cheney-Spokane roads will be widened to 44 feet where they enter the city. Curbs and sidewalks will be installed.

A third project involves widening and repaving on Betts Road and Sixth Street.

Betts Road will be widened to 44 feet from the Eastern Washington University campus to North Sixth Street. Curbs and sidewalks will be added.

North Sixth Street will be repaved between Nolan Brown Street and Betts Road.

In all, more than $2.5 million is being spent on arterial improvements in 2001. Most of that money is coming from federal highway funds being administered through the Spokane Regional Transportation Council.

Next year’s projects will follow plans this summer to widen state Highway 904 from H Street to Mullinix Road, a distance of about one mile.

The $2 million project will include curbs and sidewalks and a new tourist center on land being leased from the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.

The city is also in the second year of its residential street improvement program, which is being financed by a voter-approved surcharge on city utility taxes.

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