Road construction projects laid out
Several major road projects in Spokane Valley are about to join those already challenging motorists in Spokane.
Getting across the Spokane River will be one of the bigger difficulties in both cities.
Spokane residents already are coping with major construction on the Maple Street Bridge route, which at times has brought traffic to a crawl on the Monroe Street detour.
Ann Deasy, the city’s Engineering Services spokeswoman, said work on Ash Street – the southbound portion of the Maple-Ash couplet – is going well. Crews are expected to shift to the northbound lanes on Maple Street in mid-June.
In Spokane Valley, city officials are close to awarding a contract for a new Barker Road Bridge over the Spokane River, a project that will require motorists to use an alternate route for 1 1/2 to two years. The old bridge will be closed while the new one is built.
“We apologize for that, but this is the best way for us to get the bridge rebuilt as quickly as possible,” said Steve Worley, the city’s senior engineer for capital projects.
He said Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake city officials are working on a detour over the Harvard Road Bridge, which they plan to announce soon. They’re also working on a truck ban for the detour.
“We don’t want trucks using the detour route,” Worley said. “The roads are not in that good of shape.”
Trucks will be asked to use Sullivan Road, he said.
Worley said city officials will do their best to accommodate trucks when the intersection of Broadway Avenue and Fancher Road is rebuilt with concrete. The heavily used truck crossing will have lane restrictions, but will remain open.
As for Spokane Valley’s complicated $5.6 million Pines-Mansfield project to improve traffic on Pines Road, north of Interstate 90, the best advice Worley could offer was to expect delays.
“We will have it open to traffic, but it probably will be reduced to fewer lanes,” he said. “If people can find alternate routes, great; otherwise, plan ahead and expect delays.”
The project involves a large, rectangular area that includes freeway ramps and the intersections of Indiana and Mansfield avenues with Pines Road and the three-way intersection of Wilbur Road with Mansfield and Montgomery avenues – where a roundabout will be built.
Deasy said Spokane residents may expect a summer of road construction similar to last year’s, when there were more than 20 projects worth a total of $27 million.
This year, she said, there will be 19 projects totaling about $20 million.
About half of this year’s projects are being performed with a $117 million bond measure voters approved in 2004.
Ongoing reconstruction is expected to keep Wall Street, between Wellesley and Francis avenues, closed through mid-July, but Deasy said the new concrete intersection of Wall and Wellesley is to open Friday. She said the related, temporary four-way stop at Monroe Street and Queen Avenue will remain in place a while longer.
Monroe Street will continue to stand in for other streets throughout the summer. It will carry more detour traffic later in the summer when Driscoll Boulevard is repaired.
Deasy said another project with the potential to snarl traffic is a realignment of Broadway Avenue’s connection with Freya Street a block south, to Alki Avenue. The work is part of a five-part package of “Freya Corridor” projects that began in 2003 and will end in 2009 with construction of a new Freya Street Bridge.