Six state and local government agencies plan transportation projects in Spokane County over the next four years that could amount to as much as $457 million worth of work.


The 75 projects, ranging from a $34,000 concrete-barrier installation to a $117 million piece of the huge North Spokane Corridor project, are included on a transportation improvement program list released recently by the Spokane Regional Transportation Council. To be placed on that list, projects must have received a commitment for funding or have potential funding available.


The projects on that list have a 100 percent chance of getting funded if those agencies fulfill certain federal, state, or local requirements, says Glenn Miles, transportation manager for the SRTC.


He says the list includes projects proposed by the cities of Spokane, Spokane Valley, and Cheney, plus Spokane County, the Spokane Transit Authority, and the Washington state Department of Transportation.


Getting on this list is the culmination of a lot of independent processes at different levels of government, Miles says.


About $322 million of the listed work on the four-year planit stretches from January 2007 through December 2010involves DOT projects.


Miles says it typically takes four to seven years from the time planning begins on a listed transportation project until its funded and construction is started.


Because of environmental, right of way, engineering, and design problems, every project on the list has its own time line, he says. He adds that some projects on the list already have received and used design funding and are ready to begin construction, while others are earlier in the process.


Miles says the money for those transportation projects is coming from about 13 sources, about half of them federal and the other half state or local.


He says none of the listed projects has gone out to bid yet, because thats legally prohibited until the list is published. Yet, bids likely will be sought for some of them soon, since several projects on the list are scheduled to get under way next spring, Miles says.


About $152.5 million worth of DOT work on the North Spokane Corridor project, commonly known as the north-south freeway, will be funded through state dollars approved by the Legislature in 2003. An estimated $78 million of that total will be spent next year to build two lanes of highway for more than six miles between Francis Avenue and Farwell Road, says Al Gilson, a Spokane-based spokesman for the agency. The other $74.5 million will be used in 2008 to construct four lanes of highway between U.S. 2 and just south of the Wandermere Golf Course, at U.S. 395, he says.


The DOT received another $152 million in state-authorized Transportation Partnership Act funds in 2005 for the north-south freeway, and plans next year to begin spending $117 million of that total for additional corridor design and the purchase of more right of way. Gilson says most of that money is expected to be spent south of Francis to where the freeway would connect with Interstate 90 near the Thor-Freya exit, but it will be spent where we need it.


The DOT, according to the SRTC list, plans to spend about $2.2 million next summer to install a concrete intersection at I-90 and Sullivan Road, in Spokane Valley, and plans to spend another $6.5 million in 2009 to pave freeway ramps in downtown Spokane.


Another DOT project slated next summer would cost about $5.5 million, and would improve the northbound lanes of U.S. 195 for 10 miles from Cornwall Road, near Spangle, to Hatch Road.


Miles says a city of Spokane project to construct the long-awaited Havana Street bridge over railroad tracks north of I-90, will begin in March at a cost of $10.6 million. It will be done concurrently with a $2.2 million project to realign Broadway Avenue from Freya northeast to Trent Avenue, he says, and the bridge will take about 18 months to complete. When the bridge is near completion, work will begin on the planned $12 million Freya Street bridge, which also spans railroad tracks a short distance west of Havana, he says.


In three phases, the city of Spokane, using about $10 million of allocated money, plans to extend Riverside Avenue from Division Street east to Perry Street at Trent. Construction work on that project is scheduled for 2008 and 2009.


Two other city of Spokane projects, with construction for both slated in 2009, would include construction of the Post Street utility bridge downtown at a cost of $7.3 million, and a short connector arterial from Monroe to Lincoln streets just north of the Monroe Street Bridge that would cost $1.9 million to construct.


Spokane Countys biggest push is its ongoing Bigelow Gulch Road project, an effort to widen and reconfigure 8.5 miles of roadway that serves as a connector between Spokanes North Side and the Spokane Valley. Initially slated as a $34 million project, before delays increased projected costs, the county has procured more than $15 million to reconstruct and widen that roadway to four lanes from Havana Street to Argonne Road beginning next year, according to the SRTC list. Yet, Bill Hemmings, a roads funding specialist for the county, says environmental issues could further delay the start of that project. He says the balance of the projects estimated cost wont likely be spent until later, as the work could well extend into 2011.


Spokane Valley, according to the list, has funds appropriated to replace and widen the Barker Road bridge that spans the Spokane River. That project is scheduled to begin in 2008, and is expected to cost more than $14 million, according to the SRTC.


Everything listed here is a priority, or their names wouldnt be on the list, says Miles.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at [email protected].