Buried deep in the city of Spokanes six-year transportation plan is a proposed $18 million project to replace the big, 94-year-old bridge that carries Sunset Boulevard over the Latah Creek gorge west of downtown.


Theres no time line listed for the project, which was included in a part of the street-improvement plan that includes projects for which no matching money has been identified.


It was put in the six-year plan primarily as a placeholder, says Jerry Sinclair, senior engineer for the citys public works and utilities department. We have nothing established as far as future plans for construction there.


Rebuilding the bridge, formally called the Latah Creek Bridge, is possibly seven to 10 years away, says Sinclair, but when it starts, the project would be on the magnitude of the massive Monroe Street Bridge project, which is in its second year of work in downtown Spokane. The Monroe Street Bridge project, which will cost under $19 million, is now expected to be completed in September.


The Latah Creek Bridge carries two lanes of traffic in each direction, has a deck width of 63.5 feet, and spans a distance of 1,070 feet, says Mark Serbousek, operations and bridge engineer for the city.


It has seven arches and stands about 135 feet above Latah Creek, he says.


The bridge was constructed in 1911 and carried highway traffic over the gorge before the Interstate 90 freeway bridge was built just to the south in the early 1960s. At various times before then, that portion of Sunset Boulevard was designated as U.S. 2, U.S. 195, and U.S. 395, as well as U.S. 10, a main east-west highway that no longer is used in the West but still operates in the Great Lakes states. At one time, U.S. 10 was the main east-west highway through Spokane and west to Seattle.


Sunset Boulevard now carries street traffic between the West Plains atop Sunset Hill and the downtown couplet on Second and Third avenues.