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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Rutter Parkway work nearly done

Southbound traffic on Highway 291 backs up while waiting for a pilot car through the construction zone. After months of work, construction crews have gotten to the point where paving will be done today, Friday and Saturday nights and delays like this – some of which have lasted 30 minutes or more – will end. (Photos by Christopher Anderson / The Spokesman-Review)
By Amy Cannata amyc@spokesman.com
Southbound traffic on Highway 291 backs up while waiting for a pilot car through the construction zone. After months of work, construction crews have gotten to the point where paving will be done today, Friday and Saturday nights and delays like this – some of which have lasted 30 minutes or more – will end. (Photos by Christopher Anderson / The Spokesman-Review)

Drivers on the Highway 291 trip between Stevens and Spokane counties are finally about to get some relief. A summer of work on the highway and Rutter Parkway has meant delays of as much as 30 minutes each way or a long detour.

But come tonight, highway paving begins, and it will continue Friday and Saturday nights if weather cooperates. After that, most work should be off the roadway, said Ken Olson, project engineer for the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Since May, about one mile of the highway has been reduced to single-lane traffic during the day, as crews worked to realign Rutter Parkway and added turn lanes to Highway 291. The $4.5 million project was undertaken to improve safety on the roadway, said Olson.

Once a treacherous downhill onto Highway 291, Rutter Parkway’s intersection with the highway has been moved southeast from near the Nine Mile Falls Dam to just south of the Nine Mile Falls business area. The new road has a gentler slope and its junction with the highway offers drivers on both roads better sightlines.

“It’s been a challenge. We’ve experienced some delays of up to an hour,” said Jeff Flatt, manager of Western States Bus Service, which transports Nine Mile Falls School District children to and from school.

Traffic isn’t ever stopped for an hour, but Flatt said some buses have been unlucky enough to hit half-hour delays in both directions.

Construction crews try to get students through as quickly as possible, but they can’t always see the buses, said Flatt.

The holdups mean students are sometimes late for classes. Flatt has also dealt with a few panicked parents’ calls about kids delayed getting home.

For Western States Bus Service, it also means higher costs in fuel and wages.

Flatt had hoped that the work necessitating one-lane traffic would be completed before school started but was told in late August that the contractor had another month to go.

Paving can’t come soon enough for Nine Mile Falls Store owner Chong Yi. Construction tie-ups have cut her sales in half.

Many regular customers just don’t want to stop in the store after waiting 15 minutes or more to be escorted through the construction area by pilot car, said Yi, who added she understands why.

“I would feel the same,” she said.

Rutter Parkway was originally built by the Works Progress Administration, with large boulders and what Olson calls “dragons’ teeth” rocks lining its sides.

Some have been moved to an area just off the new roadway where the Works Progress Administration’s part in the road’s history will be reduced to words on a placard.