Proposal for name change near Highway 395

A proposed road name change in northern Spokane County aims to eliminate confusion over a parallel set of North roads.

Commissioners will conduct a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on a petition to call one of the thoroughfares Yukon Road.

That still would leave portions of North Road on both sides of U.S. Highway 395, but a quarter-mile section of overlapping address numbers would be eliminated.

The confusing situation springs from a realignment of Highway 395 about three miles south of Deer Park. A section of the old Highway 395, transferred to the county in November 1953, became the part of North Road that now is to be called Yukon Road, according to state Department of Transportation spokesman Al Gilson.

The result was that the county wound up with parallel sections of North Road on both sides of the federal highway north of West Hamilton Road. Commissioners now are asked to change the section on the east side of Highway 395 to Yukon Road.

North Road would still be on both sides of Highway 395, but not in the same location. The portion north of Hamilton Road is on the west side of 395 while the portion south of Hamilton is on the east side of 395. Hamilton connects the two sections, with sweeping curves to mask the crossover.

But there’s no helping the fact that both sections of the north-south road technically are North Road.

Comments about the proposal may be emailed to derickson@spokanecounty.org or mailed to: Clerk of the Board, Spokane County Commissioners, 1116 W. Broadway Ave., Spokane, WA 99260.