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Airway Heights council moves ahead with $19M US-2 federal grant application
Summary
The council voted to pursue a roughly $19 million federal grant for US-2 corridor improvements, acknowledging a local match of about $3 million and trade-offs for other projects; staff described prior design funding and the competitive nature of the federal award.
The Airway Heights City Council voted unanimously to pursue a competitive federal grant (about $19,000,000) for phase 1 improvements along the US-2 corridor, with an expected local match of roughly $3,000,000 drawn from transportation benefit district funds and REIT accounts.
City Manager Albert Tripp told the council the grant would advance a long-standing priority on the Highway 2 corridor and emphasized funding trade-offs. "So the overall grant's about $19,000,000 of which 3,000,000 would be of a local match," Tripp said, warning that committing to the match "also means saying no to something else" if opportunities compete for the same funds. He said the grant application is competitive and the match level is intended to strengthen the city's proposal.
Planner Troutman and others framed the application as the culmination of years of planning and prior state and federal seeds of support. "This application is a culmination of not just the last 5 years, but really the last 10 years of very careful and strategic steps," Troutman said, noting prior design funds and recent recommendations for state construction funding.
Staff said, if awarded and if other approvals follow, construction could begin as early as late July; the council and staff emphasized continued outreach to the city's legislative delegation to improve competitiveness. The council approved the consent item that included the grant application and discussed next steps for advocacy and budget impacts.
