Airway Heights faces intersection expansion

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – Increased commercial development has helped drive an intersection expansion along U.S. 2 in east Airway Heights.

The Washington State Department of Transportation and Spokane County are working to add lanes, replace traffic lights and extend sidewalks where Hayford Road meets the highway.

“We’re putting in a brand new signal system,” assistant county engineer Chad Coles said.

The additional traffic lights will direct dual left-turn lanes from the highway eastbound to northbound on Hayford Road, Coles said. Lights have also been added to accommodate five lanes where Hayford approaches the intersection.

He said the $550,000 project, by Spokane Rock Co., will also add extra street lighting and extend sidewalks along the intersection. Raised concrete channeling will be installed in some spots to define lanes.

“It should be a good deal when it gets in,” Coles said.

WSDOT transportation planner Greg Figg said the expansion is a response to new businesses and housing moving in along Hayford Road.

Several restaurants and service companies have gone up recently while a Wal-Mart Supercenter is opening near the intersection this fall.

“We’ve seen a lot of development out in that area,” Figg said.

Area builders, including Vandervert Developments LLC, have worked with the county to plan the improvements, Figg said. Several developers have been involved since preparation began in 2003.

Coles said the construction timing should work out well to cut the expected congestion from new businesses, but the expansion was supposed to begin earlier when other improvements were made to Hayford Road.

“There were some coordination issues,” he said.

Albert Tripp, the Public Works director for Airway Heights, said resurfacing and beautification projects listed in the city’s six-year Transportation Improvement Plan are separate from the Hayford intersection improvements.

“All of that is being run through the state and the county,” he said.

Coles said the latest intersection changes should meet all short-term goals for upgrading Hayford Road. The work is expected to finish before the end of the October.

“I’m happy it’s happening,” he said.