Getting There: Fewer traffic impacts than normal expected for 2025 grind and overlay work in Spokane

Construction season is underway, and with it comes another summer of roads getting torn up and resurfaced. Still, the city expects there will be fewer significant traffic impacts in 2025 than in prior years.

Grind and overlay projects are planned across the city this season, with the greatest concentration of projects between Interstate 90 on the south and Maxwell Avenue on the north.

Most immediately, starting Monday morning Sunset Boulevard, which connects Browne’s Addition to the West Hills, will be reduced in lanes with slow speeds and congestion between South Cannon Street and Government Way, tentatively scheduled for completion May 27. Where possible, drivers are encouraged to use alternate routes, such as I-90.

A number of traffic calming projects also are beginning this week, aimed to improve pedestrian safety.

Right at the border of the Cliff-Cannon and Rockwood neighborhoods, 13th Avenue will be closed between South Grand Boulevard and Division Street, and Grand will have reduced lanes where it intersects with 13th Avenue during the roughly week-long installation of pedestrian improvements and flashing crossing beacons just south of Manito Park.

To the west, another project will begin Tuesday to modify the oddly aligned intersection of Cedar Street and 12th Avenue. Cedar will be closed to northbound traffic at that location, and a pedestrian island and flashing crossing beacon will be installed to increase pedestrian safety. The project is expected to run through June 3.

Later in the season – and public works officials warn it’s hard to predict when exactly it will be – grind and overlay projects are expected to cause some interruptions in other major roadways in the city, such as Indiana Avenue from Maple to Madison and Division from Fourth to Seventh.

Most of these projects, such as those slated for Indiana and Division, can be expected to wrap within a week of when they’re started. Some projects likely will take longer, such as a project to repair Stevens and Washington streets between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Third Avenue downtown, which is slated to be a monthlong construction site.

The Maple Street Bridge may have some traffic complications later this year, with grind and overlay work scheduled between Fourth Avenue and the bridge. This project is expected to begin sometime this summer, but there isn’t an estimate yet on how long it will take to finish.

As projects are prepped and ready to begin, the city will release more specific estimates, and in all cases, drivers are asked to plan ahead for their commutes and drive slowly through work zones.