Expansion of Fish Lake Trail will bring access to more West Hills residents, improve safety, city leaders say

Residents of the Grandview/Thorpe neighborhood are about to receive access to a paved hiking trail to Fish Lake as part of an expansion project 20 years in the making.

In 2010, a city of Spokane infrastructure project brought a new trailhead to West Hills residents: Fish Lake, a 7.6-mile-long paved hiking trail at the intersection of West Ninth Avenue and South Lindeke Street, to connect with the Centennial Trail.

Residents of the neighborhood west of U.S. Route 195 will be getting access to the trail as part of an agreement with the state Department of Transportation.

“The Fish Lake Trail’s been really popular,” Council member Paul Dillon, who represents the West Hills and Grandview/Thorpe neighborhoods adjacent to the trail, said.

“It’s multiuse. It’s ADA accessible. It’s perfect for families and for dogs,” said Dillon, adding that the project will be “another important connector” to the Centennial Trail and downtown Spokane..”

The city awarded a $1.8 million contract bid to Liberty Northwest Construction of Coeur d’Alene on July 21 to begin construction on the first of two trail expansion phases.

“That is going to be a wonderful extension. It’ll improve access down to the Centennial Trail across the Sandifur bridge and have a new bike path that goes near High Bridge Park – which is really exciting, since we know that sometimes accessing the Fish Lake Trail can be a challenge coming off Sunset and Government,” Dillon said during the council meeting at which the bid was approved.

The project’s first phase, set to undergo construction later this year, will extend the existing Fish Lake Trail pavement alongside Government Way to the High Bridge Dog Park.

The city will also install both a flashing yellow traffic light for a left turn onto Sunset Highway off Government Way and a cyclist warning system at the BNSF railroad tunnel.

Thorpe/Grandview residents will receive a connecting trailhead via Thorpe Road – the result of an agreement with the Department of Transportation to lease the land to the city.

The Fish Lake Trail will link to a mixed-use path recently installed along Sunset Boulevard, which is projected to expand southeast toward Airway Heights.

Meanwhile, the city will widen and refurbish the existing path south of Government Way with street lamps, trees and crosswalks with improved pedestrian signaling.

With construction south of Government Way set to begin this year, Inga Note, the city’s principal engineer for transportation, anticipates only minor traffic disruptions.

“The reason that we’re doing the work is because there’s always been a long-term goal to connect the Fish Lake Trail better into our system, so that you don’t have to drive to the trailhead and park to get on it,” said Note, an engineer for past Fish Lake Trails expansion projects.

Dillon said the work will improve pedestrian safety.

“There’s always been safety concerns,” Dillon noted. “So, you’ll have more lighting … more activation. When you have more activation, that does help with more safety.”

A second phase, which will expand Fish Lake Trail through High Bridge Park to connect with People’s Park, is scheduled for 2027. Note expects construction to conclude by 2028.

A third phase of the project would add a separate foot- and bike-traffic bridge to cross Latah Creek, although it doesn’t yet have a definitive start date.

“That will come later if we need it – so we only have partial construction funding for Phase 2, and we are also just evaluating what we can do with the bridge,” Note said.

The project may involve an update to the current historic Marne Bridge, part of the annual Bloomsday route.

As the West Hills neighborhood’s only nonvehicular arterial connection to the Centennial Trail, the Fish Lake Trail expansion has been long anticipated.

The project has had weigh-in from the city of Spokane’s Parks Department, the Spokane Regional Transportation Council and the State Department of Transportation.

While a federal grant channeled by the regional council funds most of the project, a portion is drawn from the city’s arterial street funds and one-time new development fees.

“We also got $1 million in state money through the Recreation and Conservation Office, which will go towards construction,” Note said.

Efforts to expand the Fish Lake Trail were first set in motion with a 2021 study that surveyed both West Spokane regional trail users and project stakeholders.

The city approved funding to evaluate connection route options during summer 2021. After considering survey input, the current route was chosen from a draft of four others.

Dillon said that Spokane’s recent efforts to expand its trails are a part of the 27 x 2027 Urban Mobility Network campaign, Spokane’s transportation accessibility initiative that intends to add 27 miles of walkable routes to the city by 2027.

The Fish Lake Trails expansion is also part of the Washington Rails-to-Trails Conservancy initiative, which includes an effort to convert West Spokane’s old railroads no longer in use to multimotor hiking paths.

“I think we’re seeing, with especially the rollout of the 27 by ’27 bike loop, more of a focus on access to trails. And so, this is a huge win for the neighborhoods, especially West Hills,” Dillion said.

While Fish Lake Trail currently has a weekly traffic count of around 150 hikers and cyclists, Note anticipates that number will grow after connection with the Centennial Trail.

“And so, I’m expecting once it’s connected to the Centennial Trail that we’ll see a pretty significant increase. So, it’ll be fun to watch that and see how it changes,” she said.