Airway Heights gets $2.3 million transportation grant

The city of Airway Heights received an early Christmas present — a present that will benefit one of its road improvement projects.

During a Nov. 21 City Council meeting, City Manager Albert Tripp announced that the city received a $2.3 million Transportation Improvement Board grant to help fund phase two of the “Garfield/Russell/Sprague Loop Project.”

The city’s match for the grant, $255,325, will be paid for from Transportation Benefit District (TBD) funds. The estimated cost of the project’s second phase is over $2.5 million.

Airway Heights created the TBD in 2013 to collect money as a way to fund street, road and sidewalk improvement projects. The city proposed a 0.2 percent sales tax increase — from 8.7-8.9 percent — which voters approved in November 2013.

“It’s a nice use of our TBD funds,” Public Works Director Kevin Anderson said. “Using the money to pay a 10 percent match for a $2 million grant, it’s about as good as leverage for those funds as you can get.”

Anderson explained that the Garfield/Russell/Sprague arterial, which connects to Hayford Road, achieved federal functional classification as an “urban major collector”

According to the Federal Highway Administration’s website, urban major collectors serve “both land access and traffic circulation in higher density residential, commercial and industrial areas.” Urban major collectors also go through residential neighbors and distribute and channel trips between long roads and arterials.

“When you’re heading north, from the southern end of the city, you’re coming from Garfield Road to avoid U.S. Highway 2,” Anderson said. “Drivers will drive along Garfield until they hit Sixth Avenue, turn left at Russell Road and right at Sprague Road.”

Anderson said the city is still in the process of designing the first phase of the project and the plan is to get the bid for the project in the spring and complete it in 2017. Phase 1 includes reconstructing and widening a portion of a transportation loop along Garfield Road and Sixth Avenue from its intersection with U.S. Highway 2 to its intersection at Russell Street. Crews will construct a sidewalk with a shared-use path.

The second phase focuses on finishing up Russell Road to Sprague Avenue and is expected to be completed in 2018. It will connect the arterial across the route to the Airway Heights Correctional Facility or Spokane ORV Park and Spokane County Raceway and have similar features as phase one, including the shared-use path.

The city of Airway Heights is seeking citizen input on its six-year transportation improvement plan update in the spring. For more information, contact the Public Works office at (509) 244-5429 or email kanderson@cawh.org.

Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.