SPOKANE, Wash. — For decades, a twelve-minute drive from U.S. 395 south to I-90 has been the promise.
The North Spokane Corridor (NSC) broke ground in August 2001, according to WSDOT, and eight years later, a ribbon cutting for the first drivable section was held. Since then, only five and a half miles of the freeway have been drivable.
“It takes a long time to design, it takes a long time to buy the right-of-way, it takes a long time for all these processes,” said WSDOT project engineer Terrence Lynch. “Then construction takes a long time.”
Now, there are signs the wait for Spokane’s north-south freeway is nearing its end. It’s a welcome sign for Lynch.
“It feels wonderful,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times I hear from the public how excited they are to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
He’s the project engineer who’s spent eight years designing the corridor.
“So yeah, some of what you’re looking at, where we’re standing, my team helped design,” he said, standing atop a pedestrian overpass on a still-unopened section of the freeway.
This blacktop will soon be reopened as part of Children of the Sun Trail, crossing above a section of roadway that’s slated to open soon.
Just up the road, WSDOT is putting the finishing touches on that next piece of the project set to open.
The Wellesley interchange will connect to the northern chunk of freeway drivers have already used for years, says engineering manager for construction Chad Simonson.
“The big excitement with this piece is it adds another 2.5 miles of drivable link to the freeway to Wellesley,” Simonson said. “A lot of people have been asking when Wellesley will be open. Our goal we’re shooting for is it’ll be open by mid-November.”
WSDOT spokesperson Ryan Overton confirms a ribbon cutting is planned for Thursday, Nov. 16, for Wellesley Avenue and the northbound lanes of the North Spokane Corridor.
Another day of finishing work will be needed before opening the southbound lanes around Nov. 17, depending on the weather.
Drivers won’t get to hit all of the completed roadway from Columbia Avenue to just north of the Spokane River, Simonson adds, saying while the roadway will be done, it won’t be drivable because there’s no connection to anything at the river crossing. Drivers will instead have to divert on and off the NSC at Wellesley.
But the planned ribbon cutting later this month means most of the north-south freeway is done.
“About seven miles of drivable NSC surface,” Simonson said.
The entire freeway will be 10.5 miles long, leaving the focus further down the road to the remaining three-odd miles of the mega-project still undone. Work has already begun on some projects south of the Spokane River.
“The designers are working on the design for stage 2, which is going to complete the partial interchange at Trent, so SR 290,” Lynch said.
It’s one of three final phases left, spanning from the Spokane River to the future connection at I-90. Lynch says part of the section near Spokane Community College along Greene Street is nearly done. Painted reliefs etched into the concrete, nods to the Inland Northwest, have already taken shape.
Just north of that section, the Spokane River Crossing project is also underway; Lynch says that’s expected to take a couple of years.
By next year, he says, the last three projects should be out for construction bids, including the I-90 interchange.
The mantra around Spokane is, “Will it be in my lifetime? Will it be in my lifetime?” Simonson smiled. “I can promise it’ll be in a lot of lifetimes.”
WSDOT says when those three remaining projects wrap, the entire freeway will open. That’s anticipated to be in the next six years.
“We’re definitely charging toward completion of this project by 2030,” Lynch said.
The $1.5 billion project is fully funded through the current legislature. However, Lynch cautions with the Connecting Washington funding spread over several years and several legislative sessions, it will be up to future legislators to keep that funding in place. Earlier this year, Washington Governor Jay Inslee suggested halting the funding for the project for several years; eastern Washington lawmakers and Spokane leaders soundly shut that idea down.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: Search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
Apple TV: Search "Spokane News from KREM" in the Apple store or follow this link.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.