The city of Spokanes recently updated six-year street plan includes nearly $300 million in proposed capital projects aimed at addressing transportation infrastructure needs here.


The plan, which is updated annually, includes projects to build new roads and pathways or widen or realign old ones, rather than paving or repaving streets, which is handled separately through the citys 10-year, $117 million street bond passed in 2004, says Katherine Miller, a senior engineer in the citys capital programs department.


The city doesnt have money yet to do about 100 of the roughly 125 proposed projects in the plan, which would be built between 2008 and 2013, Miller says. For the rest, the city has set aside about $97 million in mostly state and federal dollars, she says.


Currently, 88 cents of every dollar we spend on these projects comes from either the state or federal governments, Miller says. The remaining 12 cents is generated locally through real estate taxes and a complicated distribution of the state gas tax, which provides some money for six-year street projects through gas sales made here, she says.


More local money could become available if the city goes ahead with a proposal to begin levying traffic impact fees on developers who propose projects that would affect traffic on neighboring streets, Miller says. (See story: Spokane traffic-impact fee could be enacted this year)


Miller says not much new money was secured this year for projects included in the plan, other than $4.2 million to fund two intelligent transportation projects in 2009 aimed at improving traffic flow around downtown after major events at the arena or convention complex, she says.


Among the about 30 new projects added to the six-year plan, are two roundabouts planned on Spokanes North Side. Those roundabouts, which havent been funded yet, would be located at the intersections of Lyons Avenue and Crestline Street, and Magnesium Road and Crestline.


The city constructed two other roundabouts earlier, at the intersection of Wellesley Avenue and A Street and at Lincoln Road and Crestline.


Miller says there were about six serious collisions recorded annually at Wellesley and A before that roundabout was installed in 2005, and to my knowledge, not one has been reported there since the roundabout was installed. She adds, Roundabouts certainly provide a lot of benefits if they are located in the appropriate place.


The proposed roundabout at Magnesium and Crestline is expected to cost about $1 million, while the one at Lyons and Crestline would be part of a proposed $2.2 million reconstruction of Lyons there.


Another new addition to the six-year plan is an unfunded $1.2 million project to create an arterial between Regal and Freya streets at about 44th Avenue on the South Hill. That arterial would extend from Regal east on 44th to Fiske Street, north on Fiske to 42nd Avenue, then east on 42nd to Freya, Miller says.


Most of the other new projects added recently to the plan are small, costing less than $1 million. Among them are a proposed concrete intersection at Sprague Avenue and Freya, and a two-mile streetscape project along Monroe Street, between Boone and Cora avenues.


Planned projects


Most of the projects the city has scheduled for 2008 through 2010 are totally or at least partially funded. They include:


A long-planned extension of Riverside Avenue from Division Street east through the University District to Trent Avenue at Perry Street. Though some of the money for that three-phase project already has been secured, the city of Spokane now is discussing the possibility of shifting that extension one block north to Main Avenue, Miller says. (See story: Riverside extension could shift to Main)


As currently planned, the first phase of the project would cost $5.3 million and would extend Riverside east from Division along the north side of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail line for about a half-mile, nearly to where Sherman Street would be if it were extended there. The extension then would turn to the north to connect with Spokane Falls Boulevard near the eastern edge of the higher education park. The other two phases, partially funded at a combined cost of $5.6 million, would extend a new leg of Riverside another three-quarters of a mile along the southern edge of the Spokane River. It would go beneath the Keefe Bridge, and connect with Trent Avenue to the north near Perry Street. The project as currently planned is scheduled to begin in 2008 and to last two years.


If the project is revised so that Main Avenue is extended, the emphasis of the project would shift from moving traffic quickly to and from downtown Spokane to creating a friendlier environment for the University District there, says Dave Mandyke, Spokanes director of public works and utilities. He says the Main Avenue proposal would have narrower streets than the planned Riverside extension and would eliminate right-of-way space acquired for possible mass transit uses in the future, a component of the Riverside plan.


Miller says the route for the Main Avenue alternative is only in the conceptual stages, and an exact route hasnt been determined, but suggests its likely the new route would join the Riverside route at some point and also end at Trent near Perry.


A series of related projects in East Spokane that include constructing an $18.5 million bridge to carry Havana Street over the railroad tracks just north of Broadway Avenue, a $12.9 million replacement of the bridge that carries Freya over tracks near Springfield Avenue, and a $7.7 million realignment of Broadway between Ralph and Julia streets to accommodate the Freya bridge project. The Havana bridge and Broadway realignment are scheduled for next year, while the Freya bridge would be constructed in 2009 and 2010. Funding for the Freya bridge and Broadway realignment is secured, and all but $5 million of the Havana bridge project is funded.


An $8.1 million reconstruction and realignment of Five Mile Road between Austin and Lincoln roads. That project is mostly funded and would start in 2009.


Two projects slated to start in 2010, including a currently unfunded $10 million interchange at U.S. 195 and Cheney-Spokane Road, in conjunction with the Washington state Department of Transportation, and a funded, $1.4 million concrete intersection at Wellesley and Division, in North Spokane.


Among the larger proposed projects included in the plan, but for which no funding has been secured and no timeline has been set, are a proposed $19.1 million Latah Creek Bridge project, a $15 million Fiske Street bridge project to replace an old wooden structure over railroad tracks between Alki and Trent avenues, two arterial upgrades that are expected to cost about $9 million each and involve the Maple-Ash corridor and Monroe Street, and a project of similar cost to build a new road between Cheney-Spokane Road and 13th Avenue.


Also in the plan are unfunded and unscheduled projects to realign parts of Cheney-Spokane Road, reconstruct Crestline between 37th and 57th avenues, improve capacity on Hamilton Street between Trent and North Foothills avenues, and make arterial improvements on Wellesley between Freya and Havana.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.