Advance of north-south freeway permanently closes several streets in northeast Spokane

Six streets in Spokane’s Minnehaha Neighborhood were permanently closed Monday to make way for the north-south freeway.

The roads – Bridgeport, Fairview, Cleveland, Grace, Marietta and Jackson avenues – cross BNSF Railway tracks, which leads to temporary closures on a daily basis. The railroad company is realigning the tracks to make room for the North Spokane Corridor, making necessary the permanent closure.

Euclid Avenue will have intermittent closures between Market and Ralph streets while utilities are moved, a new railroad crossing is installed and the road rebuilt. Euclid is anticipated to close on Oct. 21 for two weeks.

Wellesley Avenue will have a long-term closure, but that won’t begin until Euclid is complete.

“Wellesley and Euclid won’t be closed at the same time,” said Ryan Overton, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Work on Wellesley is anticipated to begin later this year.

The $1.5 billion freeway is more than halfway done, with 5.5 miles of the 10.5-mile road completed and open to traffic between Wandermere and Hillyard. So far, work on the freeway, which was first envisioned in 1946, has taken place outside of city limits in relatively open country. But as the freeway is completed over the next decade, it will charge through Spokane and its neighborhoods, and over Spokane Community College to its terminus at Interstate 90.

The freeway is expected to complete in 2029 and carry 150,000 vehicles a day, comparable to I-90.