With a bid of $37.5 million, Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane Valley, won a contract for what the Washington state Department of Transportation says will complete the final 2-mile leg of a drivable North Spokane Corridor link between Francis Avenue and U.S. 395.

Graham's bid was about 26 percent lower than the engineer's estimate of $50.5 million for the project.

The work will include final grading and paving of the north-south freeway between U.S. 2 and Wandermere Road, says DOT spokesman Al Gilson. The roadway will be a four-lane divided section that will connect to the U.S. 2 interchange currently under construction at Farwell Road, and complete another 2-mile-long drivable section of that freeway. DOT is preparing to open to traffic the first 3.5-mile section of the corridor, between Francis Avenue and Farwell, on Aug. 22 as a two-lane road.

A major part of the work Graham will do entails building two bridges—one for each of the highway's north- and south-bound legs—over Wandermere Road that will connect the freeway to U.S. 395 at its northernmost point, Gilson says. The northbound bridge will be 1,050 feet long, and the southbound bridge will be 975 feet long, he says.

This work is the final contract in a series of eight North Spokane Corridor projects funded by the 2003 Washington state gas-tax package, Gilson says. This portion of the freeway, between Farwell and U.S. 395, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2011.

Last year, Graham was awarded a $42.8 million contract for another project on the North Spokane Corridor, in which it is constructing the new freeway's interchange at U.S. 2, including constructing six bridges for that interchange, lowering the grade of about 1.4 miles of U.S. 2 there, and constructing a frontage road system along U.S. 2.

The corridor is a planned 10.5-mile freeway that ultimately would carry traffic north from Interstate 90 through east Spokane. In 2008 dollars, the project could cost about $2.2 billion, Gilson says. So far, DOT has concentrated on construction at the north end of the corridor, completing all but two of the projects that have been launched so far, including constructing a total of about 18 bridges, realigning portions of Freya and Fairview roads, improving intersections at Market and Francis and at Freya and Francis, and constructing a concrete arch tunnel for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway where its tracks intersect with the new freeway.