The city of Spokane Valley has awarded a roughly $2.5 million contract to Poe Asphalt Paving Inc., of Lewiston, Idaho, to rehabilitate a one-mile stretch of Sprague Avenue between Evergreen and Sullivan roads.

Work is expected to begin later this month and should be finished near the end of July, says Pete Fisch, the project's manager with the city's public works department.

Construction will be split into five phases to allow drivers to continue using Sprague while sections of the road are worked on, Fisch says.

The first phase is planned to start on the east end of the project area, roughly between Sullivan and Adams roads. Crews will work on one half of the road, and while doing so, all traffic will be diverted to the opposite side. One lane of traffic will travel in each direction, with a lane between them designated as a center-turn lane, Fisch says.

Once crews are finished with that entire half-mile stretch, construction will switch over to the section of Sprague between Adams and Evergreen, he says.

Access to businesses will remain open during construction, he adds.

While the majority of work on the six-lane road will require rerouting traffic, Fisch says a final phase of work to pave the top two inches of the road surface at once is planned to occur at night to minimize impacts to traffic and businesses located along that part of Sprague.

Other components of the project will include traffic signal upgrades at the intersections of Sprague and Adams and Sprague and Progress Road, including installing countdown crosswalk signals and making some other infrastructure improvements.

Fisch says the improvements at each of those intersections will be completed separately, and during work at each signal, traffic traveling on those north-south roads will be detoured to whichever intersection isn't undergoing construction.

Additionally, he says sidewalks and pedestrian ramps will be improved as part of the project, along with stormwater infrastructure and various other utility upgrades.