Browne Mountain project delayed

Work on a storm-water treatment and holding facility near Browne Mountain has been postponed until next year, in part to save on costs of the $900,000 construction project.

Colleen Little, storm-water engineer working on the project for Spokane County, said three bids received this year were above the engineering estimate for the project. With the end of the construction season approaching, county commissioners decided to reject the bids and call for new bids early next year.

When completed, the Browne Mountain Regional Storm Water Facility at 46th Avenue and Sumac Drive will gather water flowing off Browne Mountain and its residential areas to help control potential flooding from larger storms or periods of snowmelt.

It will allow sediment to settle and provide some cleansing of the water through filtration and biological action on basin slopes and grassy infiltration areas.

Paved and soft trails are planned around the perimeter and in an area running between two portions of the facility.

“The community all around the site participated heavily” in planning the facility, Little said. “I want them to know it’s still on the front burner.”

Initial bids ran as high as $260,000 above the engineering estimate. If work had started this year, it would have required additional expense for stabilizing disturbed soils to protect them from erosion during the fall and winter, Little said.

She said county commissioners decided to seek new bids early next year when contractors are planning work for the next construction season and might provide better prices.

The property once was a sewage lagoon used by the city, but sewer system improvements over the years eliminated the need for the lagoon. The county took over the property to develop the storm-water facility and add to the capacity of Inverness Pond to the south, Little said.

Tetra Tech/KCM designed the storm-water facility, which will have trees, benches and a waterfall, according to a drawing of the plan. Native grasses, trees and shrubs also are planned.

City and county officials have sought to extend a trail system northward along the Glenrose basin channel to 29th Avenue. But they do not have all the easements they need to place a trail on private property, Little said, although some trail easements have been obtained.

The city obtained sewer easements along the channel years ago, but not all property owners were willing to grant trail easements, she said.

The trail extension still is considered a long-range goal of local government, Little said.