North Spokane Corridor on track to be completed on time, state Senate transportation leader says

State Senate and House transportation leaders say state budget problems should not derail the long-awaited North Spokane Corridor.

Speaking to the media Friday, state Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said he is confident the corridor will be completed by the 2030 goal.

“That project is on track, and we are going to finish it,” Liias said. “We are going to get the job done on those, and the budget we passed last year puts us in a strong position to get those projects done.”

First envisioned in the 1940s, the more than 10-mile freeway will connect to Interstate 90 to U.S. Highway 2 and U.S. Highway 395 north of Spokane.

The corridor was fully funded when, after talks of delay, the Legislature passed a 6-cent increase to the state gas tax to help fund transportation projects across the state. Gov. Bob Ferguson visited Spokane last summer, doubling down on the promise to open the corridor by 2030.

The corridor faced continued delay over the summer due to a labor strike. Work continued in September after the strike ended.

State Sen. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane Valley, said he is committed to getting the corridor functioning.

“There’s no chance that is going to be an issue,” Christian said. “I still can have my concerns. Is the money going to stay there and keep moving forward? I know we have challenges with finding enough contractors that they’re willing to work under the Washington rules.”

The bridge problem

Another problem that comes up with transportation is the need to maintain and sustain older bridges within the state. Washington State Department of Transportation considers 10 bridges in Spokane County to be in bad condition, meaning they have cracks, deterioration and other damages. The bridges still are safe to drive on and improving the bridges will cut down on costs in the long run, WSDOT said last year.

Liias said the Legislature needs to spend around $1 billion a year in infrastructure maintenance around the state.

“I think as we move forward, the real question is how do we adequately fund preservation and maintenance, ” Liias said. “We don’t have that fully identified. I think that’s the discussion we need to begin.”

The governor has proposed setting aside $1 billion for repairing 10 of the most at-risk bridges in the state.

Ferguson proposed selling bonds to pay for transportation expenditures, an idea that concerns some Republicans who question taking out debt.

“It doesn’t seem to be the logical place that we should be looking at,” said Curtis King, R-Yakima, the senior Republican on the Senate transportation committee. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t have a problem with maintenance and preservation. We all know that we do.”

Liias looked at it from the perspective of Washington’s stagnating job market.

“One of the things we can do to create jobs in the short term is more highway preservation,” Liias said. “The economy right now in Washington could use this.”

The government should only use bonds for longer -term preservation, Liias said.

“If the governor’s proposal is to use bonded funds to replace some of the very old bridges that we have seen and fail us in the last year, then I think there may be value in taking a look at that,” Liias said. “But I think we need to be careful about what we’re buying with it.”