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Washington transportation budget has $75 million for North Spokane Corridor

FILE – The Howard Street bridge from Canada Island to Havermale Island over the middle channel of the Spokane River in Riverfront Park on Oct. 9, 2013. The state transportation budget signed by Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 includes money to replace the bridge. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
By Jim Camden jimc@spokesman.com(509) 879-7461

OLYMPIA – The state is expected to spend $8.6 billion on roads, bridges, ferries and mass transit projects in the next two years, with about $127 million of it coming to Spokane County.

The Senate gave final approval and sent to the governor the 2017-19 transportation budget, which is essentially a continuation of a spending plan put in place two years ago when the state raised its gasoline taxes and some other fees to build more major projects.

“It is a budget that I believe keeps our state transportation system moving forward,” Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Curtis King, R-Yakima, said before the bill passed unanimously in that chamber. It passed 82-14 in the House on Thursday.

The biggest chunk of the money coming to Spokane for that period, as it has been for more than a decade, will go to the North Spokane Corridor, which is being built to connect U.S. 395 north of the city limits to Interstate 90 and relieve some of the traffic on Division Street and some other North Side arterials.

Slightly more than $75 million will be spent on the corridor in the coming biennium, with plans to spend some $740 million over the next eight years.

While that’s the biggest project listed, among the smallest is $300,000 for replacement of the deck on the Triangle Truss Bridge in Riverfront Park.

The negotiated budget also calls for spending $8.5 million on the pedestrian and bike bridge in the University District. Other projects in the spending plan are:

$8.1 million for the Central City Line

$8.1 million for the West Plains Transit Center

$7.7 million for a series of road preservation projects that include sections of Interstate 90, state Route 290 between Hamilton Street and Mission Avenue, and state Route 904 between Mullenix and Betz roads.

$2.1 million for the Spokane Falls Community College Transit Center

$2 million for rail development on the West Plains and at Spokane International Airport

Other projects partially in Spokane County that were included in the budget are $10 million for a passing lane on U.S. Highway 195 between Colfax and Spangle, and $6.7 million for rehabilitation of the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad.

The bill now goes to Gov. Jay Inslee, who is expected to sign it sometime in the next three weeks.