Work is to begin soon on the first phase of a planned multimillion-dollar city of Spokane project to construct an overpass on Havana Street near Broadway Avenue.

The Washington state Department of Transportation, which is providing project management for the city, has awarded Noble Excavating Inc., of Libby, Mont., a $600,000 contract to bore holes for and install steel utility casings beneath the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks there as part of the overall project.

The city originally had hoped to seek bids for the project last summer, but DOT project manager Darrel McCallum says there were some delays in getting the project started, including completing right-of-way acquisition, resulting in the job being divided into two phases.

The first phase of work includes installing two casings, a 48-inch-diameter one and a 42-inch-diameter one, that will carry water lines beneath the rail lines, as well as a 24-inch casing to carry a sanitary sewer line, McCallum says. That phase also includes installing fencing and other traffic controls. He says work is to begin soon on the project.

City spokeswoman Ann Deasy says the city still is awaiting approval from the Federal Highway Administration for the second phase, at which point construction funds for it will be released by that agency.

That second phase of work will include the bulk of the project, which ultimately will include constructing the overpass and approaches to it. McCallum says DOT expects to seek bids for that work by the end of the year, which could cost between $11 million and $13 million.

The Havana bridge project is the first of a series of planned projects often referred to as bridging the Valley, he says. Bridging the Valley involves a series of bridges that would separate car traffic from train traffic in a 42-mile corridor between Spokane and Athol, Idaho.