Getting There: Country Homes was a ‘route through empty fields,’ now it’s major thoroughfare being repaired

Five weeks of construction begins today on Country Homes, a boulevard born from legislation and condemnation.

The work is basic maintenance, consisting of grinding down the pavement, repairing some native material below the road surface and rebuilding the road with hot-mixed asphalt pavement. Both ways of travel will be open, but traffic will be shifted to the southbound side of the medians between Cedar Road and Wall Street for the duration of work. On-street parking will be limited during construction on both sides of the road.

The work follows a preservation project on the Maple-Ash corridor, which turns into Country Homes on the north side.

The impact on commutes may frustrate some motorists, but Country Homes could do with an update, as is the case for any of Spokane’s major roads. For those upset about losing a lane of travel for the month of August, keep in mind that both lanes of Country Homes were someone’s backyard acreage not that long ago. It could be worse. There could be no road there.

In 1964, Country Homes Boulevard didn’t exist. A year later, it did, as a new 2.2-mile link between Division Street and the Maple-Ash couplet.

The earliest mention of the road – in a file of yellowing newspaper clippings held in the Review Tower’s basement archives – came on March 19, 1963, when both The Spokesman-Review and the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on the unborn boulevard.

The Chronicle told of legislative efforts to build the as-yet unnamed route between the Division “Wye” to Maple-Ash. There was no mention of opposition to the road in the Chronicle’s article, but resistance boiled up between the words. The road was part of that legislative session’s highway spending bill, and the story told of local legislators promising the road wouldn’t be a highway.

One of them, Sen. Nat Washington, a Democrat from Ephrata who chaired the Senate Highway Committee, had other choice words, and told people where they could go if they opposed the idea.

“If they look back into the records, the people in that part of Spokane will learn that the diagonal route was a part of the long-range plan that involved the work on the Maple Street Bridge, the Ash-Maple couplet which the state participated in and the routing of traffic south of the Maple bridge,” Washington said, in an attempt to squelch any resistance.

It didn’t work.

The $6 million Maple Street Bridge had opened as a 5-cent toll bridge five years earlier, in 1958, and was already lagging in expected toll revenue. The same day the Chronicle ran its story about the Legislature, the Spokesman reported on a group of Country Homes-area residents accusing the state of pushing through construction of Country Homes in an effort “to lessen its embarrassment over the Maple Street Bridge situation.”

The road, they reasoned, would increase travel to the bridge, which in turn would increase toll revenue. Great for the state’s coffers, they said, but not great for their home values and “the safety of their children.”

A year later, about 25 people living in the Country Homes, Linwood and Town and Country neighborhoods met with Spokane County Commissioner Ralph Umbreit, as the Chronicle reported on Feb. 27, 1964.

Umbreit told the group of “plans for the highway work.” They told him of their worries that the road would “become a serious safety hazard.” He told them that he would be sure to recommend a 25 mph speed limit. They said they’d prefer the road to be run by the county, not the state Highway Department. He told them the county was, in fact, building the road – a change in jurisdictional oversight that had sprung from earlier opposition.

The juggernaut of road-building moved forth and, within a year, Spokane County was in Superior Court condemning property for the road. Gladys Ferguson had a 10-acre tract “east of Whitehouse,” and the county needed to take a 2-acre diagonal strip for the road. In court, Ferguson’s lawyer, Patrick Murphy, “questioned witnesses on the type of traffic and probable speed limit on the 100-foot-wide boulevard.” And he “questioned witnesses on the safety of such an arterial through a residential area and the effect on construction and sale of homes.”

The Spokesman reported on the February 1965 court hearing, but not on its eventual conclusion. Ferguson, it’s safe to say, lost her fight.

In August 1965, the road was nearly complete and opened with just two lanes. County Commissioner Jack Geraghty said the full four-lane road would be done by the end of the year. County Engineer J. Wayne Arrasmith concurred, noting that crews had little trouble with the “simple” work, “most of it consisting of grading a route through open fields.”

Nowadays, the road is a major thoroughfare for north- and southbound commuters, and is one of the busiest routes maintained by the county. In 2018, the road carried 26,400 vehicles a day on average, equivalent to Nevada Street and Francis Avenue.

The Maple Street Bridge, the albatross that midwifed the road, kept collecting tolls for years. In 1981, the toll increased to 25 cents. And in 1991 – 32 years after the bridge opened – the toll was removed and crossing was free, a trip that 45,000 cars a day made, on average, in 2018.

Traffic deaths surpass tolls

of World Wars I, II, opioids

More Americans have died in car crashes since 2000 than did in both World War I and World War II, and most of those fatalities were caused by speeding, drunk or distracted motorists, according to an analysis of government data by the Washington Post published last week.

From 2000 to 2017, more than 624,000 people died in car crashes. The two world wars, by contrast, took the lives of 535,000 military personnel. Another 30 million Americans were injured in the crashes.

The analysis also compared crash fatalities with the opioid epidemic. From 2006 to 2012, opioids killed almost 100,000 people. During the same time period, 190,455 people were killed by drivers.

In 213,000 of the crashes that occurred since 2000, motorists were above the legal limit for drinking and driving, which stands at a blood-alcohol content of .08%.

More than 197,000 people died as a result of speeding. About 78,000 people died due to distracted drivers.

“Multitasking does two things. It makes you stupid, one, and it makes you dangerous,” said Bruce Landsberg, National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman, in the article.

In the city

Euclid Avenue, between Market and Ralph streets, has reopened. The $2.4 million project to relocate and encase water and sewer mains beneath railroad tracks crossing Euclid, install a new water main under Market between Euclid and Bridgeport Avenue, and under Ralph from Euclid to Courtland Avenue, was related to construction of the North Spokane Corridor.

A single lane closure on Spokane Falls Boulevard between Post and Monroe streets will continue through Aug. 2 between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. The work is related to the construction of a massive sewer tank.

Pipe rehabilitation work on 29th Avenue between Regal and Mt. Vernon streets will close lanes Monday and Tuesday. Similar work will close 30th Avenue between Regal and Mt. Vernon both Monday and Tuesday. Lincoln Street lane closures from Sprague to Main avenues will occcur on July 31 and Aug. 1 during the hours of 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Beginning Monday, work to repair a wastewater main line will have crews working daily from approximately 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Helena Street from Cataldo to Desmet avenues, and Hogan Street from Desmet to Cataldo. The $750,000 project will repair several wastewater pipes by installing linings and repairing pipe connections. These improvements will reduce the amount of groundwater infiltration into the municipal wastewater system.

Street preservation work has closed Wellesley from Driscoll to Milton streets to through traffic. Detours are in place.

Bridge construction slows I-90

Speed limits on Interstate 90 near Medical Lake are dropping this week as work crews build a new bridge over the interstate.

Speeds will drop from 70 to 60 mph for about a mile beginning Wednesday. The reduced speed limit will remain in place during work hours until the project is completed, which is expected in 2020. The work is part of Medical Lake interchange improvements related to the coming traffic expected from the construction of the Amazon warehouse. It is happening at the state Route 902 interchange at exit 272.

Besides the new parallel bridge over I-90 that will allow two lanes of travel in each direction, three roundabouts are being built. Two will be constructed at the east and west on- and off-ramps to I-90, and the third roundabout will be constructed at Route 902 and Geiger Boulevard.