Interchange Work Could Be Delayed By Bad Weather

Sat., Sept. 30, 2000

By Trinity Hartman trinityh@spokesman.com

Follow Mission Avenue around the horseshoe detour at Evergreen Road and you’ll see a blocklong patch of gravel to the south.

This is the missing link where the state’s Evergreen Road interchange construction project begins and the county’s road-widening project ends.

The county’s part of the job - widening Evergreen Road north of Sprague Avenue - will wrap up next week.

The state won’t finish the new Interstate 90 interchange and the approach roads until Thanksgiving at the earliest.

Bad weather could push back completion of that part of the state project until spring, said DOT regional administrator Jerry Lenzi.

The state’s $23.4 million interchange project includes extending Evergreen north of Mission across the freeway to Indiana Avenue. The DOT is also building the new Mission Avenue bridge over Evergreen, which will slope down toward I-90 and the Spokane Valley Mall.

“The end of November is still the target,” Lenzi said.

The state will finish the southern part of the project last. That includes the Mission Avenue bridge, which will pass over the top of Evergreen Road, and the last blocklong link to the newly widened road.

While the state races against winter, the county has nearly finished its portion of the Evergreen Road job.

The county’s $1.1 million widening project runs from Sprague north to the state project. Once completed, Evergreen will have five lanes, plus sidewalks and bike lanes.

All that remains is adding lane stripes, said county construction engineer Chad Coles. The county plans to open Evergreen from Broadway Avenue to Sprague next week, Coles said.

Evergreen will remain closed north of Broadway until the state finishes its portion of the project.

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