Spokane County hopes to begin at least one of six planned phases of work on the 8 1/4-mile stretch of Bigelow Gulch Road between Havana Street and Sullivan Road later this summer, says Chad Coles, a county contract engineer.


In April, the Federal Highway Administration approved a revised environmental assessment that Spokane County submitted for the $53.9 million project, clearing the way for the county to begin acquiring property needed to begin construction on the project.


Overall, about 100 acres of property will be needed for the project, though the county already owns some of that, Coles says.


The county has acquired or will seek to acquire nine homes and a number of outbuildings and about 50 acres of farmed land, the assessment says. It also will need about 65 acres of temporary easements, it says.


The county will widen the two-lane road to four lanes with alternating gravel medians and left-turn lanes, and it will realign the road to reduce the sharpness of the curves in several places, Coles says. In addition to widening 5.8 miles of roadway, the county will build about 2.5 miles of new roadway, including a connecting road stretching southeast from Forker Road near Bigelow Gulch to Sullivan, Coles says.


Coles says the changes are needed for several reasons. Safety is a major concern on Bigelow Gulch, which has highest accident rate in the county, averaging 43 collisions each year, he says. Additionally, he says improving the road will improve traffic flow and bring the aging road up to current construction standards.


Its a heavily used truck and freight route that connects the industrial area of Spokane Valley to a number of commercial and industrial complexes in northeast Spokane, the county says, with between 4 million and 10 million tons of freight hauled over it each year.


Design of the first three phases is 85 percent complete, and construction of the first phase could get under way this summer, Coles says. In that project, about 3,000 feet of Bigelow Gulch east of Havana between that street and the edge of the urban growth boundary will be widened.


Coles says that project likely will cause significant traffic disruption, but the county plans to keep the road open during the construction. The countys most recent cost estimate for that phase of work is $3.38 million.


The second phase will involve widening the 2 miles of road between Weile Avenue and Argonne Road and leveling out the elevation, which will mean a significant traffic disruption, he says. The countys most recent estimate for that phase, which might also begin later this year, is $6.6 million.


The third phase will include the section of Bigelow Gulch with a significant grade between the edge of phase one and Weile. Coles says most of the work there involves reducing a curve in the road by building a new section of road. Work on that phase possibly could begin a bit later close to winter. The countys most recent cost estimate for that phase is $10.4 million.


Coles says the other three phases, which ultimately will create a new connection to Sullivan in Spokane Valley, were slated to be done in reverse order, but the county now is considering what it can pay for first.


He says the sixth phase is within the city of Spokane Valley, and that the city likely will contribute to the cost of that phase.


The project has been under development for about 10 years, since a 1998 county urban connector study identified Bigelow Gulch as one of a number of high-traffic corridors.


The Federal Highway Administration had directed the county to revise its 2006 environmental assessment of the proposed project to address public comments regarding the original assessment and to analyze further some of the environmental impacts of the project, Coles says. The county had received more than 550 public comments on the 2006 environmental assessment on issues such as vegetation and wildlife impacts, noise, and safety at the Bigelow Gulch-Forker Road intersection.


The county has made several modifications to the project to address public concerns. One such adjustment is the addition of a southbound underpass under Bigelow Gulch for Forker to merge with eastbound Bigelow Gulch, which will make access between the two safer, Coles says. Right turns onto westbound Bigelow Gulch from Forker will be controlled with a stop sign.


To address the loss of about 38 acres of grass and forest wildlife habitat and white-tailed deer winter range that will occur due to the project, the county will restore 7.8 acres of bypassed roadway to native habitat and will add vegetation along the shoulders on portions of the road to provide additional habitat, the environmental assessment says. The county also will designate 6.6 acres of forested area east and north of Palmer Road, located on the west side of the project, as wildlife habitat.


The county also has revised its original plan, changing the planned alignment of about 2,300 linear feet of roadway along Forker between just south of its intersection with Jacobs Road and its intersection with Progress Road to avoid possible impacts to a stream there, Coles says.


Because about 3 1/2 acres of sports fields at East Valley Middle School will be used for the new road, the county plans to construct a pedestrian overpass or underpass for students to cross the road safely. In addition, the Forker- Sullivan connector will be constructed with 4-foot-wide bike lanes and sidewalks, the environmental assessment says.


The rural parts of the roadway will have paved shoulders suitable for use by bikes and farm equipment, the assessment says.


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