North Spokane Freeway Gets New Green Light

Stop and go. Stop and go. Stop and go.

The history of the proposed North Spokane freeway is more halting than rush-hour traffic on Division Street.

But transportation officials say the $22 million that state legislators recently sunk into right of way acquisition may get the project moving - permanently.

“It may not happen as quickly or as neatly as we’d like, but it will happen,” said Chris Marr, a Spokane businessman and a member of the state Transportation Commission. “We’ve never gotten this far in terms of right of way.”

Residents first talked about building a North Spokane freeway nearly 50 years ago, but the proposal stumbled every time it started. A year ago, state money for the project was a sure thing. Then voters approved Initiative 695, which put a hole in transportation funding, and many officials called the freeway project dead.

But legislators - determined to fill funding gaps left by I-695 - found money for the freeway and several other statewide projects.

The $22 million for the North Spokane freeway will allow the state to buy vacant land between Hawthorne Road and U.S. Highway 2, said Keith Martin, the engineer in charge of the project for the state Department of Transportation.

Martin - who never doubted the project’s future - said he hopes to get the freeway’s final plans approved this year and have the project ready for bid next summer.

Construction could start soon afterward, depending on how the project fares in next year’s state budget, Marr said. He added that there is so-called “place-holder” money in early versions of 2001 and 2003 biennium budgets.

The off-again, on-again nature of the project has been exhausting for David Kirkman and his wife, who learned last year their new neighbor would be an eight-lane freeway.

“It’s wearing, the emotional highs and lows,” said Kirkman, whose North Spokane home lies adjacent to the proposed freeway route. “We heard if I-695 passes, the highway’s toast. We allowed ourselves to get quite buoyed up, and not long afterward, (the DOT) started calling again.”

Reader question

Q. When Spokane County improved Bruce Road three years ago, the speed limit was supposed to increase to 50 mph between the Argonne Hill and Bigelow Gulch, but it remains at 45 mph. Why is that, and who sets speed limits?

A. Hills near that stretch of road require the speed limit drop to 35 mph, so there’s no sense in raising the speed for such a short distance, said Ross Kelley, assistant county engineer.

“We have to drop the speed down the hill to 35 mph, and north of Bigelow it’s already signed 50 mph,” Kelley said.

The jurisdiction responsible for the street sets the speed limit, Kelley said. The county bases its speed limits on a variety of things, such as safety issues and the average speed of drivers on that particular road.

Meetings delayed

The Spokane Citizens Committee developing a plan to fix the city’s streets has postponed a series of public meetings scheduled for May.

Committee members say they need more time to devise options for financing a street repair and maintenance program. Once they’ve done that, they’ll schedule the meetings aimed at gauging public opinion on the proposals.

For more information, call the Streets Committee hotline at 625-6734 or check out the city’s web site at www.spokanecity.org.

Hot spots

Interstate 90 and Sprague Avenue: Drivers should expect eastbound lane closures between Havana and Sprague, with traffic down to two lanes. Occasionally this week, I-90 may be down to one lane from Sprague to Broadway.

I-90 from Broadway to Argonne: Drivers should expect some night-time lane closures near the Park Road bridge.

I-90 and Evergreen: Drivers should watch for slow-moving trucks entering and exiting from the median.

This sidebar appeared with the story: NUMBERS Your ideas

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