Spokane airport offering customers courtesy car wash

You now have no excuse for leaving Spokane International Airport in a dirty car.

The airport opened a courtesy car wash for people who park in one of the two garages or in the outside parking lot north of the garages.

The automatic car wash is available to anyone, including people who use the garages to pick up or drop off their passengers. The minimum parking charge for the garages is $2; they cost $10 a day, or $8 for the outside lot north of the garages.

The car wash isn’t available, however, to people who use the parking lot next to the Alaska Airlines terminal.

It’s just the latest in a series of customer-friendly changes at the airport dating to 2011. Free Wi-Fi, free baggage carts, a cellphone waiting lot, a mobile website, frequent flier rewards and wooden rocking chairs in waiting areas at passenger gates are among the benefits added under airport CEO Larry Krauter.

The car wash opened around Thanksgiving and is getting plenty of use – about 200 vehicles a week.

“You push the button and the door opens,” airport spokesman Todd Woodard said.

Woodard said he saw one driver in a dirty pickup with Montana plates look relieved when he realized he could clean off the winter road grime he accumulated on the drive to Spokane.

“We actually get a lot of nice feedback from customers,” he said.

The facility uses biodegradable soap and recycles the water.

The Washington state Department of Transportation is planning a series of construction projects between Spokane and Pullman on U.S. Highway 195.

Concrete pavement panels in the southbound lanes of U.S. 195 just south of Interstate 90 will be repaired this year. Broken panels will be replaced and unbroken ones will be fused together.

A similar project fixed the northbound lanes a few years ago. Also, panels on I-90 going up Sunset Hill were repaired. The pavement style dates to the 1960s and is considered an outdated method now, but the panels still have useful life, officials said.

Also, three repaving projects are planned to the south: Plaza Road to Cornwall Road near Spangle; Colfax to Dry Creek Road; and Babbitt Road to the state Highway 27 junction at Pullman.

Sullivan changes

Spokane Valley reports some changes to the traffic pattern on the Sullivan Road bridge.

Southbound traffic will be reduced to one lane from Sullivan Park to I-90. Southbound turns onto Indiana Avenue will be allowed.

Northbound through traffic will be reduced to one lane from I-90 to Flora Pit Road. Turns onto I-90 and Indiana Avenue will be allowed.

Northbound turns from Indiana Avenue onto Sullivan will be reduced to one lane.

Cleaner fuel

The Union of Concerned Scientists last week said it is endorsing a state of Washington study completed in December that calls for measures to achieve clean-fuel goals.

Compliance could be achieved with electric and hydrogen cell technology and low carbon fuels, the study said. Biofuels are recommended.

Also, SeQuential Pacific Biodiesel, which does business in Washington state, said in another news release that it strongly believes a clean fuel standard would provide both environmental and economic benefits.

The study is available at ofm.wa.gov/initiatives/cleanfuelstandards.