Public comments sought on regional transportation projects

The Spokane Regional Transportation Council’s board of directors is seeking public input on prioritizing a list of $98 million worth of transportation projects in the region, including over $11.15 million worth on the West Plains.

The board has approved the list of 49 project submitted by various area agencies such as the cities of Airway Heights and Cheney along with Spokane County and the Washington State Department of Transportation. The public input submitted, along with criteria of available funding programs, required geography of those programs and project timing will be considered in developing the council’s strategy to fund the work proposed.

Approximately $26.2 million in federal funds is available for the program projects over the next four years.

Airway Heights has submitted two projects totaling just over $3.292 million for consideration, the largest of which is the $3.203 milllion construction of a new section of 10th Avenue from east of Garfield Road to Hayford Road, with a new roundabout or signal at the Hayford and U.S. Highway 2 intersection.

Cheney’s only project is $955,152 of preservation work on Washington Street from Oakland to West Sixth streets. Work includes asphalt overlay, sidewalk patching, ADA curb ramp replacements and the addition of a center turn lane from Elm Street to just north of Cedar Street to support Spokane Transit Authority circulation serving Eastern Washington University.

Three of the 14 projects submitted by Spokane County have West Plains implications. A reconstruction and widening of Brooks Road from the Medical Lake city limits to Thorpe Road is proposed at $1.608 million, with shoulders widened to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians.

Pavement preservation work of $2.132 million is proposed on Cheney-Spokane Road from Grove Road to the Spokane city limits, as is $962,700 of similar work — including sidewalk separation — on Craig Road from 21st Avenue to U.S. 2.

Finally, the state DOT’s lone project is $2.2 million in intersection improvement at U.S. 2 and Garfield Road, including replacing the existing signal with a roundabout.

The project applications were scored and ranked by a committee of staff members and members from SRTC’s Transportation Technical Committee (TTC) and Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC). From there, each committee came up with a list of projects to recommend to the board, who adopted a prioritized list and are now asking the public for input on it as the work to fund projects begins.

A complete list of the projects is available at http://www.srtc.org.

To comment on the priority list of regional transportation projects, email [email protected], call (509) 343-6370 or mail comments to SRTC at 421 W. Riverside, Suite 500, Spokane, WA 99201.

All comments must be received by Sept. 9, 2018.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].