Getting There: Work on North Spokane Corridor in 2026 lays groundwork for completion

Year by year, the North Spokane Corridor slowly inches to completion, which is still estimated for 2030.

But aside from the river crossing delayed by last year’s labor strike, no new bridge deck will be poured in 2026. Instead, this year’s work is primarily boring shafts, pouring columns and setting girders, laying the groundwork for construction over the next couple of years between Mission and Sprague avenues, including a half-interchange onto the highway at Trent Avenue.

The Spokane River crossing, connecting the solitary highway segment looming next to Spokane Community College, had been scheduled for completion late last year, noted project engineer Alexandra Proszek. Last year’s operator strike shut down the project for about two months, and by the time it was finished in September, completion of the river crossing got pushed into the winter when construction stops.

Proszec estimated the river crossing would be completed, at most, three months into the construction season. The Children of the Sun Trail pedestrian bridge will be finished around the same time, tying into the Centennial Trail and opening to the public soon after.

Most of this year’s scheduled work will be broken into two simultaneous phases: Mission to Alki and Alki to Sprague, the latter of which broke ground last August.

“Both of these projects are very, very heavy bridge structure work,” said Chad Simonson, Washington State Department of Transportation assistant regional administrator for construction. “They do a lot of boring and drilling of shafts, the shafts go up, then pier caps – we’ve got to build all of those first. Hopefully, as they get sections done, we’ll be setting girders.”

The Mission to Alki stretch will soar over the BNSF railway south of Trent Avenue, as will the parallel Children of the Sun trail.

This section will also eventually include a half-interchange with Trent, which will cause the busy avenue to be closed to traffic for roughly 45 days, plus additional partial closures, though this work is not anticipated until 2028 or potentially 2029. In the meantime, the city this year will relocate the water lines in the area under Trent, Syndicate Boulevard, Ralph Street and Cataldo and Desmet avenues, a roughly $1.5 million project expected to start in April and finish by late fall.

The state has already purchased all of the land necessary for completing the North Spokane Corridor, though a few vacant buildings south of Trent and near Ralph Street remain to be demolished, noted Thomas Brasch, WSDOT assistant regional administrator for design.

The final stage of the North Spokane Corridor, which involves constructing the vast interchanges and other improvements for Interstate 90, won’t start in earnest until 2027, though residents still have the opportunity to weigh in on some of the aesthetic “place-making” design decisions, noted Robyn Lashbrook, a project engineer focused on the corridor’s design.

Different segments of the highway have already seen these kinds of artistic touches guided by the history and community feedback of the neighborhoods where they pass through, such as day and night mountain nature scenes on the Euclid Avenue bridge abutments for the Minnehaha Neighborhood or a locomotive mural planned for abutments near Hillyard.

These additions can be easily seen at the corridor’s current southern terminus near Spokane Community College, where Spokane artist Melissa Cole was contracted to design the embossed column artwork depicting feathers, balsamroot and other natural features. Another Spokane artist, Reinaldo Gil Zambrano, has created 16 drawings for possible inclusion in the I-90 tie-in project, which the community can weigh in on through a survey on the Engage WSDOT website.

The state transportation agency is also hosting monthly meetings for community feedback. The next one will take place Feb. 26 at 5 p.m. in the multipurpose room at Frances Scott Elementary.

The North Spokane Corridor has been long-awaited and long-delayed, but agency spokesman Ryan Overton remains largely optimistic about the 2030 completion date.

“There’s always risk involved,” Overton said. “It’s fully funded, and we’re in the middle of the supplemental budget right now, so we’ll see how that plays out. But as it is, we’re planning on moving forward … it will get done.”