SRTC: Valley couplet traffic flow to drop

The debate over expanding the Sprague-Appleway couplet in Spokane Valley has seesawed for years, but most of the players assumed the corridor needed room for ever-increasing numbers of cars.

The Spokane Regional Transportation Council (SRTC) recently weighed in on a proposal to extend the couplet eastward, though, and its projections say traffic flow will drop on Sprague during the next 20 years. That puts hopes to lengthen Appleway, the south leg of the couplet, in jeopardy.

Using traffic modeling software, the SRTC predicts traffic volume on Sprague will drop to about 800 vehicles per hour in 2025. Spokane Valley Public Works Director Neil Kersten said the road gets 1,400 vehicles per hour now. Improvements to Interstate 90 and more business activity on north-south roads such as Sullivan could be contributing to the SRTC’s belief that travel on Sprague will decrease, he said.

SRTC transportation manager Glenn Miles wrote in a Dec. 21 letter to the city that the seven lanes on the portion of Sprague east of the current couplet will be adequate for the future.

But city staffers think the SRTC’s numbers are flawed.

“It has been frustrating because it’s been over a year since we started this,” Kersten told the City Council. “We had really good community support for where we were going.”

David Evans & Associates Inc., a Spokane-based engineering firm, is studying traffic for the city. Kersten said it has found several missing roads in the SRTC’s software and that the model didn’t account for recent growth in the south and east ends of town.

The confusion comes after the council thought it finally understood how Spokane Valley citizens felt about the couplet.

The Sprague-Appleway couplet has been a source of controversy since it opened in 2000. Some businesses on the Sprague side blame it for declines in sales. As a two-way road, Sprague was the commercial corridor for the Valley. Now homebound, evening traffic heads east on Appleway, and the businesses on westbound Sprague see morning commuters, who aren’t as likely to stop and shop.

Still, a survey last year showed that the public supported keeping the couplet as two one-way roads and extending it east. Sixty-nine percent of 400 citizens surveyed agreed that the couplet has been a “useful improvement.” The same percentage said converting Sprague back to two-way was a bad idea. Between 56 and 70 percent supported extending the couplet east to Sullivan in one form or another.

Some citizens have said, though, that decisions about building a city center and reeling in urban sprawl should be made before action is taken on the couplet. ECONorthwest, a consulting firm, told the city that land use should drive transportation decisions.

“It’s the comp(rehensive land-use) plan and the ECONorthwest study that matters,” Sprague business owner Dick Behm said Tuesday. “Then the traffic follows.”

Regardless, the city would need the SRTC’s OK to fund the couplet extension. The Washington state Transportation Improvement Board, which has $4.2 million set aside for the project pending the SRTC’s nod, had given the city until last month to complete its plans.

Kersten said he thinks the board will be flexible with that deadline.

“This is way beyond our control,” he said.