Keith Metcalf, the new regional director here for the Washington state Department of Transportation, says that while the publics eye might be focused on the North Spokane Corridor, the agency also is grappling with planning for other big transportation projects hereas well as how to fund them.


For instance, the DOT currently is seeking money for a planned $120 million project to make the U.S. 195 corridor in southwest Spokane safer and more efficient, says Metcalf, who recently took over the reigns of the DOTs Eastern Region office here, succeeding longtime director Jerry Lenzi, who has become the agencys chief engineer, in Olympia.


The DOT plans to improve the five-mile stretch of U.S. 195 between Interstate 90 and Hatch Road by eliminating at-grade intersections on the busy highway and constructing a separate arterial street system there that would provide local access and an alternative way for residents there to drive to and from the city core.


The plan, says Metcalf, eventually would include constructing full, freeway-like interchanges at Hatch, Meadowlane, and Cheney-Spokane Roads, the three main traffic points along that stretch of highway, and creating grade separations to allow Thorpe Road and 16th Avenue to pass under or over the highway. Meanwhile, a new arterial would be built on the west side and parallel to U.S. 195 and would be used for local access.


He says DOT hopes first to get enough money to replace the at-grade intersection of Cheney-Spokane Road and U.S. 195 with a partial interchange, a change he says is needed to increase safety. Of the $12.5 million needed to build that partial interchange, about $2 million has been appropriated for design in the departments 2007-09 biennial budget, he says.


Also still on the long-term project list is the widening of I-90 to six lanes between Sullivan Road and the Idaho state line, Metcalf says. The DOT already has widened the freeway between Argonne and Sullivan roads. The agency has received about $10.5 million in federal funds to design the final stretch, from Sullivan to state line, but it needs more than $160 million to complete that project, he says.


No stranger to SpokaneThough Metcalf has been working in Olympia for the past year and a half as director of project control and only recently took over the top DOT post here, hes no stranger to the Eastern Region, which includes seven Eastern Washington counties and 460 employees.


I grew up in the community, and raised my children here, he says. During his Olympia tenure, he kept his roots planted in the Spokane area, commuting to the state capital while his family continued living here. His wife still teaches in Spokane and his adult son and daughter both live here, he says.


In all, the 1987 graduate of Washington State University has spent 20 years of his 30-year DOT career in the Eastern Region. Among his other posts were working here as a design and construction engineer, in Wenatchee as project engineer, and in Seattle as an assistant regional administrator for project development.


I plan at this point to finish my career here, Metcalf says, adding that retirement is likely at least 10 years away.


Metcalf says the North Spokane Corridor, which was estimated to cost $400 million back when he first worked here, remains a priority for the Eastern Region in terms of mobility and added capacity. About $321 million is allotted for the project out of what the DOT calls the nickel package of transportation funds approved by the 2003 Legislature, which will get the project completed from Francis Avenue to Wandermere, Metcalf says. In 2005, an additional $152 million was appropriated for design and right of way for the project through a separate state transportation funding package.


Funding for all of the departments projects, however, are stagnating, even as construction costs rise, and future funding to continue the project isnt a given, Metcalf says.


Already, Metcalf says, he has discussed with local elected officials the possibility of creating a transportation benefit district to levy local vehicle fees to help fund work on the North Spokane Corridor.


Through such a district, vehicle fees of up to $20 a year could be levied without a public vote, Metcalf says. The district could be formed by a collection of jurisdictions, including Spokane County and its municipalities, Metcalf says.


The idea of using funds from a transportation benefit district to help pay for a state project is controversial because money collected by local jurisdictions otherwise could be used for local transportation projects, Metcalf says.


Theres been quite a bit of dialogue about that, he says. He acknowledges theres a backlog of local work, and says theres a feeling among elected officials here that they really need to take care of their local needs.


The big question is, How do we obtain additional funding? for projects like the North Spokane Corridor, which will cost a total of $3.3 billion by the time its completed, Metcalf says.


He says securing more state money for the project might depend on demonstrating local support by raising matching funds here. One way to try and get additional state funds is to get local participation, to show that the area values the project enough to contribute to it, he says.


Metcalf says fundraising through a transportation district would be useful because it could be used to leverage state allocations, especially since the DOT changed its budget appropriation process to list projects as line items, meaning that it gets a set amount for each project, rather than a pool of funds.


That budgeting shift has created problems, Metcalf says. There has been a significant increase in the cost of the commodities needed to complete projects, creating a funding gap between the budgeted amount for a project and the real cost, he says. When costs exceed what was budgeted, the department sometimes must dip into future preservation-program funds, designated for road maintenance, to complete projects, or choose to delay the project.


He says the pressure is apparent in the number of repaving projects the department has scheduled this year. He says normally the department does about a dozen such projects each year in this region, but this season plans to do just two.


In addition to delays, DOT has chosen to save money by increasing the number of chip seals it does as opposed to full asphalt work. Now, the department will forego a full asphalt overlay for a chip seal, which involves pressing aggregate into an asphalt emulsion, on more roads than it has in the past. Metcalf says a chip seal lasts half as long as a full asphalt overlay, but costs one-tenth as much.


Altogether, the DOTs Eastern Region has $240 million available for capital projects and $40 million for maintenance during the current biennium, he says.


Included in that budget is an about $15 million project next year to repave 64 on- and off-ramps along I-90 between the Geiger Boulevard interchange on the West Plains and the Sullivan interchange, including all but those at Sprague Avenue, Evergreen Road, and the westbound on- and off-ramps at Pines Road. Under the same contract, the department will refurbish the concrete surface of I-90 from the Division Street interchange to just east of Havana in both directions.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.