Getting There: Airway Heights unveils expanded local roadway meant to alleviate Highway 2 congestion

Locals should have an easier time running errands around Airway Heights, thanks to an expanded thoroughfare on the city’s north side.

The city hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday for a new stretch of West 10th Avenue that connects the roadway all the way from Garfield Road to Hayford Road. Prior to the roughly $4 million project, the roadway wasn’t much more than a 300-yard paved offshoot of Garfield.

As Airway Heights’ Hank Bynaker said while standing on the newly laid asphalt, “the city’s growing,” and with that growth comes a need to accommodate more drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

It’s one of the fastest growing cities in the state, so when people look around, they see a lot of changes,” Bynaker said. “They see a lot of digging in the dirt, you know?”

The city’s population has nearly doubled since 2010, which was right around the time the Washington State Department of Transportation advised the city to expand local roadways to support the impending population and development boom, alleviate congestion on U.S. Highway 2 and improve travel for local residents.

Airway Heights City Manager Albert Tripp said the project is part of larger efforts to institute WSDOT’s recommendation. He said work is already underway on the second phase, which involves reconstructing and extending Sixth Avenue west to Craig Road.

“The bigger we grow, the more people are going to have to channel down to Highway 2,” said Airway Heights City Council Chair Larry Bowman. “These connecting roads are just kind of key pieces of the puzzle to alleviate traffic congestion.”

Bowman said the work also helps build a more connected community and a sense of identity for the burgeoning city, two of the council’s long-standing goals.

“Everybody kind of looked at us as a pass-through city,” Bowman said. “But now everybody’s starting to be like, ‘Wait a minute. What’s going on with Airway?’ ”

The new section of 10th Avenue intersects with Lyons Road, providing easy access to the Yoke’s Fresh Market that opened a few weeks ago. It boasts a wide concrete sidewalk to the south, a wide multimodal asphalt trail on the north side of the street and a newly installed traffic signal at the Hayford intersection.

Bowman said it’s already made it easier for him to get around town, and he expects the same for his fellow residents.

It’s also prime real estate for prospective businesses, with a couple commercial outfits already located in the area and easier in and out access than the bustling highway.

More than 40 companies and government entities came together to complete the roadway, including the city, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, the Spokane Tribe, Fairchild Air Force Base, the Spokane Transit Authority and the West Plains Public Development Authority, referred to as S3R3 Solutions, Airway Heights Project Manager ReBecca Fouts said.

“Many hands make great work,” Fouts said.

Bowman said collaborating with local partners, particularly the Indigenous tribes that own large swaths of land and operate a pair of casinos within city limits, has been instrumental not only for the connectivity work but also in planning for the city’s future.

“The more that we can work together, the better we can make things for the community,” Bowman said. “That’s what I focus on, working together instead of thinking about it as separate entities, like councils have done in the past.”

“We’re neighbors; we have to do these things together,” he added.