Inland Asphalt Co., of Spokane, has been awarded more than $15 million in road construction projects by the Washington state Department of Transportation.


The largest of the projects, a $6.9 million contract for the resurfacing of Mission Avenue between Fancher and Sullivan roads in the Spokane Valley, should get under way by early August, says DOT spokesman Al Gilson.


That project also includes construction of a center turn lane along that seven-mile stretch and the installation and reinstallation of signal lighting at five intersections along the route. The work is expected to take about six months to complete, says Gilson, but is expected to be suspended during the winter, then be resumed next spring.


Another Spokane-area project awarded to Inland Asphalt was the $1.3 million construction of a loop on-ramp from northbound Sullivan onto westbound Interstate 90 near the Spokane Valley Mall. That on-ramp will run under the Sullivan overpass. Work on the project, which will take place primarily in the northeast quadrant of the interchange, should begin within the next few weeks and take about three months to complete, Gilson says.


Inland Asphalt bid successfully on two projects to the west of Spokane, on I-90 in the vicinity of Ritzville. The larger of the two is a $4.7 million repaving of the inside lanes of the interstate between Ritzville and Tokioalmost a 13-mile stretchand a lowering of the roadbed beneath the Wellsandt Road overpass, located just east of Ritzville. Work on the project, which also involves realignment of on-ramps and off-ramps at both Wellsandt and Ritzville, is already underway and is expected to be completed in about four months.


Additionally, Inland Asphalt was awarded a $2.5 million contract for the resurfacing of I-90 between Ritzville and state Route 2, which intersects I-90 about 12 miles to the west. Work on that project is expected to begin within a month and to be completed in about three months.