Head East On Appleway Blvd.

Thu., Sept. 21, 2000

By Trinity Hartman trinityh@spokesman.com

Appleway will get 2.6 miles longer next month.

Spokane County commissioners have decided on the name Appleway Boulevard for the new roadway that will make up half of the Valley couplet. Appleway Boulevard will parallel Sprague Avenue from Interstate 90 to University Road.

“It (Appleway) made the most logical sense and the engineers supported it,” said Spokane County Public Works spokeswoman Laura Rumpler.

She spent much of last week at the county’s booth at the Spokane County Interstate Fair. Many fairgoers stopped by to talk about the new road and to sign up for a chance to be the first driver on the new couplet. The winner of that honor will be announced later.

“It was kind of the hot topic,” Rumpler said. “People seemed surprised and excited to find out it’s going to open this October.”

The county still hasn’t set a date for the official opening, but expects it to be around the middle of October.

Commissioner Kate McCaslin said naming the new road Appleway makes sense since the couplet might eventually be extended east and hook up with the existing Appleway in Greenacres.

Commissioners decided not to name the road after a person because it would have been “a can of worms,” McCaslin said.

The $18.9 million Valley couplet will be similar in design to the Argonne-Mullan and RubyDivision pairs. Sprague will carry traffic westbound while Appleway will be eastbound.

Each road will have four travel lanes, sidewalks and bike lanes. Sprague will have a fifth outside lane to carry buses and high-occupancy vehicles.

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