Council approves Ridgemont Estates project

SPOKANE VALLEY — The Council unanimously approved a design contract for

the Ridgemont Estates storm water improvement project at its regular meeting on Sept. 5.

The contract will be with Osborn Consulting Incorporated in the amount not to exceed $379,397 and involves creating an engineering design that is required for a sustainable storm water system and street pavement design, city documentation said.

The effort is scheduled to last through September 2024. At the end of this design project, the city will be positioned to finalize its design and prepare final construction documents.

This contract will not provide 100% construction documents, documentation said. Instead, it provides the bulk of engineering design work that is required for the creation of 100% plans, specifications, and estimates.

In 2023, the city increased its annual storm water utility rate from $21 to $58 per

Year, which has generated new revenues for the storm water utility, documentation said.

A portion of revenues generated by this rate increase is for needed storm water improvements in the Ridgemont Estates neighborhood, documentation said.

This neighborhood is located in the southeast corner of the city, east of Sullivan Road and between 16th and 24th Avenues.

Residential development in this neighborhood has occurred incrementally since the 1970s.

As a result, the early construction of storm water facilities grew into an undocumented patchwork of ponds, catch basins, pipes, and ditches.

Even though staff maintain an inventory of known structures and facilities in the area, the actual capacity of the system is not known.

The streets regularly experience flooding during storm events and often overflow through existing ditches, leading to washouts and property damage.

Also in 2023, the city completed its first year of the local access preservation services contract.

This contract targets asphalt replacement projects in different neighborhoods throughout the City.

The Ridgemont Estates neighborhood has been identified as a candidate for asphalt replacement, but unknown stormwater and groundwater challenges have kept the project lower on the asphalt replacement priority list.