Spokane County outlines 10-year corridor plan, eyes federal and state grants to pay match

Spokane County public-works staff on July 21 presented commissioners with a long-range corridors and grant strategy that envisions roughly $56 million of annual roadway investment when county funds are combined with state and federal grants and local match.

Why it matters: County staff said the plan is a multi-year build-out that relies on aggressively pursuing grant programs, pairing county match with state and federal funds, and staging large corridor projects in bite-sized pieces to make scales of work feasible and to minimize the county fund burden.

Funding and scale: Staff said county funds available for capital average about $6 million per year and that, with matched grants, the county typically leverages that into approximately $32 million for capital plus maintenance and preservation spending. Public Works reported about $5 million per year goes to preservation (seal coat, crack sealing) and about $20 million to routine maintenance (snow, potholes, guardrail) on average.

Corridor priorities and costs: The presentation highlighted several major corridors and estimated current-day costs (planning-stage estimates): - Argonne Avenue: roughly $21.5 million for core rebuilds, with an additional potential $15 million tied to Centennial Trail gap work and the Argonne/Hwy-291 intersection (the county called the intersection one of its busiest and most dangerous). The county has secured nearly $4 million in competitive “VIN SIB” funding for initial engineering on part of Argonne. - Wall Street: about $11.6 million including road reconstruction and stormwater work and a redundant force main tied to Marion Cay lift station needs. - Market Street and northern trunk sewer work supporting UGA growth: roughly $13.3 million, including sewer conveyance work timed to development build-out. - Glenrose and 30th Avenue corridors: multi-phase rebuilds with long-range costs in the tens of millions depending on phasing. - Railroad crossing elimination candidate in the Spokane Valley (staff cited McKinzie/McKenzie crossing): staff said that a crossing elimination project can score highly in grant programs but also requires land acquisition and a two-for-one elimination (closing another crossing with corresponding community trade-offs); county staff estimated a match need in the low millions for a competitive project.

Grants and strategy: Public Works identified federal, state and local grant programs the county watches (examples discussed: BUILD, NHS safety programs, CRAB/County Road Administration Board programs, Department of Ecology water-quality grants, and competitive railroad-grade-separation programs). County staff emphasized that some grant programs are targeted to safety or multimodal improvements and that Ecology stormwater grants can act as match for larger capital projects.

Process and timing: Staff recommended staging large projects into smaller phases to match grant cycles and match eligibility and said many projects will require long runways (often multiple years of study, right-of-way acquisition and phased construction). The county’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) is updated annually and amended as project funding is secured. Staff noted administrative burdens for large federal grants can persist for years after construction.

Ending: Public Works asked commissioners to continue prioritizing corridors and noted the long-term nature of major projects; staff said they would return with TIP updates and grant-application details as projects mature.