The city of Spokane Valley is planning four road projects, worth a total of about $6.7 million, along and near busy Sullivan Road this spring and summer.

Two of the projects include replacing the asphalt-surface intersections at Broadway and Sullivan and at Sprague and Sullivan with concrete surfaces, and a third project involves widening a stretch of Broadway east of Sullivan. Also, the city plans to extend Indiana Avenue in an area east of Sullivan to connect it either to Mission Avenue or to Flora Road, near the intersection of those two streets. Another project planned along that corridor, to replace the asphalt surface of the intersection at Sullivan and Indiana with concrete, has been postponed until 2011 because of the already-busy construction schedule and the expected traffic congestion the other projects will cause, says Craig Aldworth, a city of Spokane Valley project manager.

Aldworth says the other work all is being done this year largely because the city has received grants to fund large portions of each of the projects, and they must be constructed within a certain period of time.

"When you send out all these grant applications, you don't know which ones you will land," Aldworth says." We put out 10 to 15 grant applications every year, and then it's the luck of draw when they'll be funded."

The city has received grants from the Spokane Transit Authority, the state Transportation Improvement Board, and the Federal Highway Administration for the planned projects, Aldworth says.

The city will seek bids from contractors for its planned $1.2 million replacement of the Broadway and Sullivan intersection early next month, and it hopes to get the project under way in April, Aldworth says. The project is expected to take until mid-May, and the city estimates the cost of construction to be around $800,000, with the rest of the $1.2 million in cost taken up by design and engineering, Aldworth says. During the project, Sullivan will remain open, but eastbound and westbound traffic on Broadway will be detoured at times . A $978,000 grant from STA will pay for about 80 percent of the cost of the project, he says.

Once the work at Broadway and Sullivan is completed, the city will close the intersection of Sullivan and Sprague completely while it replaces the asphalt surface with concrete. The overall cost of about $1.15 million is being funded in part with a $745,000 Federal Highway Administration grant.

Aldworth says that though it seems like more of a problem for drivers to close the busy intersection, that will enable the city to complete the work in less than three weeks and also will allow it to use just one set of detours. Otherwise, motorists could face changing detours every couple of weeks, and the work could take up to two months if the intersection were kept open, he says. The project likely will start by June 21. Aldworth says Spokane Valley expects to seek bids for the project in March.

After that project is complete, likely around July 4, work will begin on a $2.75 million project to widen Broadway east of Sullivan, between Moore and Flora roads. The roadway there will be widened to add a center turn lane and five-foot-wide bike lanes on each side of Broadway, as well as new curbs and sidewalks, Aldworth says. Also, a roundabout will be constructed at the intersection of Broadway and Flora, he says. The work is needed because traffic on that road has increased since the opening of several businesses.

Construction for that project is expected to cost about $2 million, and the city is coordinating with Spokane County, which plans to install sewer line along that stretch of Broadway as it's widened. The cost of that separate work isn't included in the city's project estimates, Aldworth says. Broadway will be closed except to local traffic during the project, he says.

The city also has received a $1.6 million Transportation Improvement Board grant to construct its planned extension of Indiana from east of Sullivan to connect with either Mission or Flora near the intersection of the two streets, which it hopes to construct this summer. It's still negotiating, however, with the property owners, who are donating right of way for the project, and with Spokane County on the final path and details of the planned roadway, Aldworth says.