Pedestrian overpass to get extension

Bikers and walkers passing over Interstate 90 in Liberty Lake will soon be free of the freeway.

State transportation officials said they will build a pedestrian bridge over the freeway’s eastbound onramp next spring, joining with the overpass built last summer and providing an easy path between the north and south sides of the city.

“It just makes absolute sense to extend the bridge,” said Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson, who attended an open house Wednesday held by the state Department of Transportation.

The state was looking for public comment on the project and had several posters and a preliminary design for the bridge available at the meeting.

The bridge, which will likely cost around $1 million and will be paid for with state and federal funds, will look like the current bridge with trees along the rail.

It will extend above the onramp, where currently bikers and walkers must cross the pavement and wait for traffic.

Two men who work at Software Spectrum in Liberty Lake and commute on bikes from their Spokane Valley homes made the precarious crossing Wednesday to reach the Centennial Trail north of the city. They said the bridge will help people avoid traffic.

“What they’ve done is awesome, but the more the merrier,” said Brian Perks.

The project should begin bidding this fall, and construction will begin next spring, said Al Gilson, spokesman for WSDOT.

The project should take only a few months to finish and will require closure of the onramp for one night to put steel girders above the road, he said.

While the bridge is being built, the current pedestrian overpass will be closed for about a month, Gilson said.