Sprucing up Spokane Street
POST FALLS - Let the revitalization of Spokane Street begin.
Contractor Cameron-Reilly has started work on a $1.8 million urban renewal project in the busy Post Falls corridor from Interstate 90 to the Spokane River bridge.
The project, intended to ease traffic and create a long-awaited city center, will include landscaped medians, lighting, on-street parking in some areas on the east side of Spokane and new sidewalks and curbs.
"It will take 60 working days to compete the project," said Tom Lien, urban renewal agency executive director, referring to the completion in late September.
There will be intermittent lane closures throughout the construction period. Work will start on the south end of the corridor. New sidewalks will be constructed on one side of the street at a time, leaving access to the other side.
One of the medians near City Hall will include art, donated by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, of 5-foot fiberglass fish.
"It will tie into our history and the tribal culture of fishing on the Spokane River," said Terry Werner, Post Falls public services director, who approached the Tribe about the idea with other city officials.
Traffic signals at the intersection of Spokane and Fourth were completed earlier this year as part of the revitalization project.
The urban renewal agency received two bids for the project, including $1.95 million from Cameron-Reilly of Spokane Valley and $2.08 million from Big Sky Development of Hayden.
Both bids were higher than the engineer's estimate of $1.57 million.
"Part of the reason for this was that we're starting to see a substantial upturn in construction prices as the economy gets rolling again," said Matt Gillis of Welch Comer Engineers. "This has been especially noticeable in the past couple months."
Welch Comer and urban renewal commissioners worked with Cameron-Reilly to reduce landscaping, lighting and electrical work to reduce the price tag by $150,000.
"The change won't affect the look or quality of the final product," Lien said.