A Spokane County proposal to construct four railroad underpasses in the Spokane Valley and several projects proposed by the Washington state Department of Transportation on Interstate 90 and U.S. 395 here have made a list of high-priority projects that will be presented to the state Transportation Commission in January.


Those projects and others proposed by the DOT and other cities and counties in Eastern Washington were submitted earlier this year to the Eastern Washington Freight Mobility Advisory Committee, a body commissioned by the 1997 Legislature to study the movement of freight and goods in Eastern Washington.


Ross Kelley, Spokane Countys assistant county engineer, says that the county proposed that railroad underpasses be built where Park, Vista, University, Evergreen, Flora, Barker, Harvard, and McKinzie roads intersect with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.s railroad tracks just south of Trent Road. He says that each underpass, which is expected to cost between $7 million and $12 million, would be similar to, but not as wide as, the Argonne Road underpass completed about a year ago. According to documents from the Freight Mobility Advisory Committee, underpasses at Park, Vista, Evergreen, and Barker were placed on the high-priority list.


Kelley says the countys highest priority is to build the underpass at Park Road, followed by underpasses at Barker and Harvard. Those would provide good circulation through the Valley for trucks, trains, and general traffic, he says.


The Washington state Department of Transportation has proposed that a railroad underpass be constructed at Pines Road where it intersects with the BNSF railroad tracks, and also has suggested other projects along Interstate 90 and U.S. 395, says Jerry Lenzi, the DOTs regional administrator. The Pines underpass didnt make the list.


Some of these project wont pass muster, but then again some of them might pass muster, Lenzi says.


Of the proposed DOT projects in the Spokane area, work in four separate sections of I-90 were placed on the high-priority list, including work between Harvard and Sullivan roads, Sullivan and Pines, Pines and Argonne, and Argonne and Sprague. Also, work on two areas of U.S. 395 from Hastings Road north to milepost 172 and from Halfmoon Road to Hamilton were placed on the list.


Frank Tombari, chairman of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, says he believes that state legislators will try to find a way to deal with freight-mobility problemsseparate from all the other transportation issues facing our state. Tombari adds that the public needs to be aware of congestion that trains and trucks face in the state.


Almost all of the eastbound (train) traffic from Seattle comes through Spokane, and they need to be able to move through here without slowing down, Tombari says. He says that more than 60 trains heading east pass through Spokane each day.


The Freight Mobility Advisory Committee prioritized the more than 80 proposed rail and road projects that were submitted and soon will recommend to the state legislative Transportation Committee that it fund 33 projects that were categorized as high-priority projects, says Joe Tortorelli, an economic development director for Washington Water Power Co. and a member of the freight committee. Those 33 projects have an expected total cost of $535 million, he says.


The Transportation Commission will prioritize the list of priority Eastern Washington projects and combine those with a list of priority Western Washington projects. The funding for the final list of projects will become part of the transportation budget package that will be presented to the Legislature, Tortorelli says.


I see (the proposals) as a safety issue, a traffic issue, and a long-term competitive issue, says Glenn Miles, transportation manager of the Spokane Regional Transportation Council, a local transportation-planning agency. He says that the state provides an important route for freight headed to the east from Puget Sound ports, and that Eastern Washington needs to find ways to improve the flow of goods so that the state doesnt lose that freight to other ports and routes in Southern California or Canada.


Keeping that competitive edge is important, Miles says.


Other projects that Spokane County proposed, but which didnt make the high-priority list, included major widening projects on both Sullivan and Bigelow Gulch road, together which would cost an estimated $14 million. Another project that didnt make the cut was a separate $11.8 million upgrade of Bigelow Gulch from Argonne Road east to Forker Road, and a realigning of Forker to Sullivan.