City Needs $25 Million To Route Trent Around Campus

The people building a higher education park east of downtown Spokane don’t want their future students to worry about dodging traffic on the way to class.

But with the state itching to replace the decaying Trent Avenue bridge, some fear they’ll be stuck with a highway splitting the middle of the Riverpoint campus.

To avoid that fate, city and campus planners are trying to find $25 million to replace the bridge 100 yards upstream and reroute Trent around the south end of the campus.

The section of Trent that runs through Riverpoint would be blocked off.

Riverpoint houses the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute and classrooms for Washington State and Eastern Washington universities.

“Can you imagine a college here of 5,000 or 10,000 students, with academic buildings on both sides of the street and a major highway through the center?” asked Terry Novak, acting director of the Joint Center for Higher Education, which administers the campus.

Novak said the concentration of idling cars in the area also makes it one of the city’s worst spots in terms of air quality.

The state Department of Transportation has earmarked $8 million in federal money to replace the Trent bridge at its current location. The bridge, built in 1917, needs to be replaced by 1999, the department estimates.

The state has no objection to moving the bridge, said Al Gilson, spokesman for the Spokane office of the Department of Transportation.

But the department also would be content to leave it where it is, Gilson said. The city needs to come up with the extra money if it wants the bridge and the road moved.

The city has been trying to find that money for a few years with no luck - and time is running out.

Divers will inspect the bridge this summer, and if they determine it needs to be replaced soon, the Riverpoint campus could be stuck with it forever.

That wouldn’t be a big problem immediately, since the buildings now in use are north of Trent. But as the campus expands south, the road could become a major aggravation.

Novak said he’s talking to state officials to see if they can shore up the old bridge to give the city a few extra years to come up with the extra $25 million.