Spokane Rock Products Inc., of Spokane Valley, has been named the contractor on a $1.5 million project to repave more than three miles of Bruce Road, says Spokane County assistant engineer Chad Coles.

Work on the county road northeast of Spokane will include resurfacing and minor drainage improvements, he says.

The repaving project, which will affect Bruce Road between east Day Mount Spokane and east Stoneman roads, will close the thoroughfare during the duration of construction, Coles says. A construction timeline hasn't been determined, but he says work likely will start next month and be completed before the end of the year.

While construction takes place, traffic will be rerouted west to Market Street and to the North Spokane Corridor, which extends down to Francis Avenue, Coles says.

The work will be paid for with federal surface transportation funds and county road improvement funds, he says. The project will take place in lieu of a scheduled $1.4 million project awarded earlier this summer to Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, to replace Bruce Road Bridge, southeast of Mount Spokane High School.

The county put the Bruce Road Bridge project on hold until next spring, Coles says, because it was too late in the year to build in and around the creek. That project calls for the contractor to replace the existing bridge with a new structure slightly wider than the current one, and 10 feet higher. The planned construction area also will include stretches of road extending 500 feet north and south of the bridge to bring the roadway up to the new height of the span, and will include four-foot shoulders on either side.