A look at key events in the development of the North Spokane Corridor project through 1999. For more coverage, visit http://www.spokesman.com/topics/north-spokane-freeway.
Created by andrewzahler on Apr 22, 2010
Last updated: 04/25/10 at 08:00 AM
Tags: transportation Spokane
Spokane’s long-sought North Side freeway gets a boost with the announcement of a $35 million federal economic stimulus grant to pay for a 3.7-mile extension of the southbound lanes between Francis Avenue and Farwell Road.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/feb/18/stimulus-to-spur-work-on-corridor/
The first leg of the corridor, between Francis Avenue and Farwell Road, opens, just a slice of the 10.5-mile link between Interstate 90 and U.S. Highway 395 at Wandermere.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/aug/23/lure-of-the-open-road/
Volkswalker Paula Hayes walks the 14-kilometer round trip of the new North Spokane Corridor between Farwell Road and Francis on the day the first leg opened.
Spokesman-Review photographer Jesse Tinsley gets a bird's-eye view of the newly completed section of the freeway and captures this video.
This overpass at Piper and Fairview was built in 2007.
Legislators unveil a new plan for a three-mile stretch of the freeway from Francis Avenue south to the Spokane River. Instead of the expected $720 million, the new plan for the section is pegged at $285 million.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2008/nov/25/proposal-shrinks-corridor-price/
Legislators order transportation officials to research “the feasibility of administering tolls on the U.S. 395 North Spokane corridor.” Spokane-area representatives say it won't work.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2008/feb/23/budget-funds-study-of-corridor-tolls/
A tarp-cart spreads a tarp used to cover a precast concrete arch poured at the Central Pre-Mix yard in Spokane Valley. The company was building arches for a new railroad tunnel needed to complete the first leg of the North Spokane Corridor.
A worker climbs a ladder during work on the north Spokane freeway project in Mead.
State lawmakers includes nearly $100 million more toward construction of the North Spokane Corridor in a two-year transportation budget.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/apr/21/corridor-gets-99-million/
Spokane resident Lee Campbell and his daughter purchase a a 1922-era, Craftsman-style home that they plan to move across Interstate 90 to preserve it. The house sat in the North Spokane Corridor right-of-way.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2006/jan/25/history-makes-way-for-new-freeway/
A water truck for controlling dust traverses newly graded earth on the North Spokane Corridor between Parksmith Road and Farwell Road.
The corridor's cost is pegged at $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion in 2011 dollars under new cost estimates from the state Department of Transportation. It was originally estimated at $875 million in 1994, a difference that the department says is primarily due to inflation and some minor design changes.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2002/jun/05/highway-cost-estimates-startle/
As the long-discussed project moves closer to starting, residents in the proposed paths take note. “We’d always kind of laughed about it. We didn’t think it could happen,” said Patti Moore, who lives on Euclid Avenue just one vacant block from the proposed freeway route. “Now, we’re kind of concerned.” (Source: The Spokesman-Review)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1999/feb/12/possible-freeway-routes-put-homeowners-edge/
The state formally eliminates a freeway route through the residential Hamilton/Nevada area to shore up public support for one of two other routes: the Market-Greene streets and Havana Street corridors. (Source: The Spokesman-Review)
During a Spokane Regional Council hearing on mapping north Spokane freeway routes, business leaders propose keeping multiple options on the table and call for studying a Hamilton/Nevada path as well as Market-Havana. Neighborhood leaders say the state might as well forget the western route. The discussion was the most significant in years, a Spokesman-Review article said.
About 58 percent of Spokane voters favored a north-south freeway in an advisory vote.
A summary of a Spokane Metropolitan Area Transportation Study concluded that "the Spokane area needs three more six-lane freeways and a network of four-lane expressways by 2000," an article in the Spokane Daily Chronicle said. One of the recommended freeways was the already-proposed north-south corridor.
This aerial photo, taken by Libby and Son Photographers in July 1971, shows the newly completed stretch of Interstate 90 in central Spokane. In the lower left is Liberty Park and and a partly completed interchange intended to link up with the proposed north-south freeway.
About 600 Spokane residents, mostly opposed to the north-south freeway, attended a lengthy hearing put on by the state Transportation Department at the Spokane Coliseum. The projected price tag at the time? $60 million. (Source: Spokane Daily Chronicle)
A class-action lawsuit seeks to block construction of the north-south freeway on behalf of residents in and around the three corridor options under consideration.
State highway Director George Andrews says that north Spokane freeway construction would be delayed five years by a variety of factors. He predicts the then-$36 million project could be open to traffic by 1978. (Source: The Spokesman-Review)
State highways Director Charles G. Prahl cites immediate plans to complete Interstate 90 and a longer term goal of the north Spokane freeway, which he thought would not be started for another two to three years "at a minimum." (Source: Spokane Daily Chronicle)
State legislators flirt with a solution to objections to a new freeway that would cross the Spokane River based on Maple Street Bridge bond debts, a point of contention that shelved plans for the corridor in 1959. But the bill dies on the House floor because Rep. Margaret Hurley, D-Spokane, wants a clearer idea of where the new bridge would be built. (Source: Spokane Daily Chronicle)
The State Highway Commission submits figure to Legislature based on current construction figures, even though a route has yet to be determined.
Judge Willard J. Roe bars the city from using Thor Street between 37th and 44th for the north Spokane freeway, saying that the route that would encompass this stretch deviated from the plan approved by voters in March 1962. (Source: The Spokesman-Review)
State highways Director William A. Bugge says the freeway project is on hold until bonded debts from the Maple Street Bridge are paid off.
Washington state Rep. Bernard J. Gallagher, D-Spokane, has harsh words for the proposed north-south freeway, which would run through his district. "If this sort of planning persists, we will need a shakeup in the highway department's planning decision and we may need to do away with the state highway commission," he said. (Source: The Spokesman-Review)
In what will become a common headline in coming months, state highway officials say the north Spokane freeway project has been shelved over controversy and a lack of funds.
The state highway department recommends a route for the north Spokane freeway that would run between Cincinnati and Hamilton/Nevada streets and intersect with the future extension of the east-west freeway (today's Interstate 90). (Source: The Spokesman-Review)
"High ceremony accompanied the Nov. 16, 1956, grand opening of the first five miles of what was then called the Spokane Valley Freeway. Miss Spokane and Miss Spokane Valley cut the red ribbon opening the freeway from Custer Road, near what now is known as the Havana Street exit, to Pines Road in the Valley." (Source: Amy Cannata, The Spokesman-Review)
Legislators first called for building a companion roadway adjacent to Division Street to improve North Side traffic flow.
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