Wesslen Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the apparent low bidder for a $1.5 million city of Spokane contract to pave part of Fish Lake Trail southwest of Spokane.

The work represents one of two remaining phases of a three-phase project to create a paved 10.5-mile link between the Centennial Trail in West Spokane and the trailhead of the Columbia Plateau Trail at Fish Lake. Fish Lake is on Cheney-Spokane Road near an old railway right-of-way owned by the city of Spokane.

The current project will extend the Fish Lake trail almost 4.5 miles south from a trailhead near Government Way and the Sunset Highway, to the north end of a 3.5-mile paved section of the trail about in the middle of the overall route.

The project includes repairing several bridges along that northern portion of the trail that are crossable but structurally unsound, installing a parking lot at the Government Way trailhead with stalls for two dozen cars, and constructing restrooms at the trailhead, says city spokeswoman Ann Deasy.

The work is expected to begin in August and continue through November. That section of the trail will be closed throughout the work, she says.

The project is being paid for in part with about $300,000 in federal stimulus funding, as well as a $1 million grant from the Washington state Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development.