The Spokane County Public Works Department plans to start two projects worth a combined total of $19 million as part of its continuing work on Bigelow Gulch and Forker roads.

Martha Lou Wheatley-Billeter, Spokane County’s public works information and outreach manager, says the county already has completed several such projects to improve different sections of Bigelow Gulch Road, which runs a total of seven miles between north Havana Street and north Forker Road. 

She says the first of the next two improvement projects likely will begin in August. 

 “This first $9.7 million project will reconfigure the Bigelow Gulch and Forker Road intersection,” she says. 

According to Wheatley-Billeter, a bridge will be constructed to enable eastbound traffic on Bigelow to pass over Forker Road and head south. Meanwhile, southbound traffic on Forker will pass under the bridge, connecting to Bigelow again via a cloverleaf. 

She says additional on/off connections will enable northbound traffic on Forker to either exit the bridge and continue north, or to follow Bigelow west.

That project should begin by mid-summer next year, after which work will begin on the second project. 

 “The second project is estimated at $9.4 million and will include straightening and widening the stretch of Bigelow that runs between Old Argonne Road and Evergreen Road,” she says.

Wheatley-Billeter says once these latest two projects are completed, the county still has four remaining projects planned for the corridor, the next involving improvements to the section of Forker between Bigelow Gulch and Progress Road. 

“That project is tentatively planned to start in 2018,” she says. “All remaining improvement projects on this corridor are, of course, dependent on funding and grants available through the County Road Administration Board, the Washington State Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board, and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration.”

Wheatley-Billeter says all upcoming projects were designed to increase safety on Bigelow Gulch Road by improving and widening the roadway, as well as redesigning several intersections. 

“These roads are narrow and curvy,” she says. “They weren’t designed to handle the larger freight traffic that we see come through those areas today. It’s very much a safety issue.”