Area Trail Receives Donation From Pearl Jam

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We need some better connections around here. Celebrity connections who want to pay for transportation projects. According to the Spokesman-Review, Eddie Vedder, singer for the group Pearl Jam, says the band plans to contribute $25,000 to the Ferry County Rail Trail Partners' (FCRTP) surfacing project on the trail that runs from near Republic to the Canada border.

The Ferry County Rail Trail is a 25-mile multi-use, nonmotorized trail along a former rail line that connects four towns and follows miles of waterfront on Curlew Lake and the Kettle River.

Bob Whittaker, president of FCRTP, has been friends with Vedder since their childhood together in Seattle. Vedder has supported the rail trail in the past by donating autographed items to auctions to raise money for the trail.

Vedder asked that the donation be made in the name of Chris McCandless, a modern adventurer who was the subject of the award-winning book and movie "Into the Wild". He said the donation also is in recognition of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and their ancestors who have walked this valley for thousands of years.

Driver Hits 240 Consecutive Green Lights

A New York City Uber driver is boasting that he drove through 240 green traffic lights before hitting a red light- and he has the video to prove it. Pretty cool if you consider how many people complain that they get stuck at every single traffic light.
  
Noah Forman says he achieved the feat during a 27-minute drive through Manhattan at around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 6.
  
It's the second time he has attempted to catch all consecutive green lights. Two years ago, he says he hit 186 in a row. I'm not sure why but Forman is now setting out to double his record. Check out the video below and feel free to count the lights to make sure he's not making it up then report back.
  

High Winds Topple Semis on SD Freeway

I'm not sure how I missed this last week but I did. While we were fighting to shovel out from snow in time for Christmas here, in Wyoming they were fighting winds. Last week, high winds caused the Wyoming Department of Transportation to close westbound Interstate 80 from west of Laramie to Walcott due to multiple tractor-trailers being blown over.

Exactly how high of wind gusts do you have to have to blow over a semi truck? The DOT reported wind speeds exceeding 60 miles per hour that day. Even so, a lot of truckers and other drivers took their chances and went around the road closed signs. Many blew over or got in accidents as a result, with 80 crashes reported in a 24 hour period.

States With Medical Marijuana Laws Have Lower Traffic Fatality Rates

A new study says that states with medical marijuana laws have fewer traffic fatalities than those without, according to the Commerce Journal. The study didn't reference states where recreational marijuana is legal, like in Washington.

Going into the study, researchers thought crash rates might be higher, as more drivers were assumed to be high. But researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found an 11 percent reduction in traffic fatalities on average in the 23 states and District of Columbia that have enacted medical marijuana laws.

The presence of medical marijuana dispensaries also correlated with fewer traffic fatalities, the study found. The theory is that lower traffic fatality rates might be related to lower levels of alcohol-impaired driving as people, especially younger people, have started substituting smoking pot for booze.

There was little reductions in the traffic fatality rate for people 45 or older, who are disproportionately represented in larger numbers among people enrolled in state medical marijuana programs. The largest reduction in traffic fatality rates in states with medical marijuana laws occurred among drivers ages 15 to 44.

Not all states with medical marijuana laws experienced reductions in traffic fatality rates though. California and New Mexico experienced initial reductions of 16 percent and 17.5 percent, respectively, after the passage of medical marijuana laws but then saw gradual increases in traffic fatality rates.

Community Meeting on Mission Avenue Project

A community meeting to provide information for the upcoming Spokane Valley improvement project on Mission Avenue from Flora Road to Barker Road will be held Thursday, January 12, 2017 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at Greenacres Christian Church,18010 E. Mission Ave.

An overview of the project will be presented at 6 p.m., followed by an opportunity for community members to share ideas, questions, comments, and concerns.

For more information, contact project engineer Craig Aldworth at 509-720-5001 or caldworth@spokanevalley.org. 

Browne's Addition Plowing Wednesday and Thursday

Browne’s Addition is scheduled to be plowed Wednesday, December 28 and Thursday, December 29 as the City of Spokane continues its effort to plow residential streets. Signs will be placed at the entrances of Browne’s Addition announcing the plowing schedule. No parking is allowed in Browne’s Addition during the plow schedule to allow room for the plows. Cars not moved off the street will be towed so make other plans.

How Buses Will Work If Lanes Are Reduced on Monroe Street

There has been a lot of talk lately about a proposal to reduce about a mile-long section of Monroe Street from five lanes to three. Businesses are worried about the impact a long-term construction project will have on their bottom line, people who drive through the area are concerned about delays and a lot of people have voiced complaints about getting stuck behind buses stopping at multiple bus stops through the area if there is just one lane in each direction.

According to The Inlander, Monroe is STA's third busiest route, with nearly 650 bus trips taken on the route every week. So the newspaper asked STA how things will work with buses stopping to pickup and drop off passengers on a narrowed roadways.

To start, the Inlander reports, STA plans to reduce the number of bus stops in that stretch- but only by one stop, so there will be a total of three stops.

STA officials are hoping that off-board ticketing that lets bus riders pay ahead of time will speed up the boarding process and "level boarding" will put wheelchairs at the same level as the buses, which will reduce the time required to load them onto buses.

Even if STA didn't reduce stops or implement the other technology that could speed things up, officials say the lane reductions would only add about 25 seconds to your commute during the "rush hour" period.

Man Given Permission to Wear Horns For Driver's License Photo

From the "Probably a Poor Precedent to Set" file, comes this article about a man who was granted the

right to wear horns in his driver's license photo.

According to FoxNews.com, an ordained Pagan priest last week got the go-ahead to sport goat horns in the photo for his Maine driver’s license.

Phelan Moonsong said that unless he’s sleeping or bathing, he always wears his horns, which he says "serve as his spiritual antennae and help him educate others about Paganism."

He was initially told that the horns would have to be removed for the photo but after the Maine Secretary of State's office reviewed the case, was allowed to keep them due to his religious beliefs and because they don't obstruct his face. According to Moonsong, the goats are no different than a nun wearing a habit, or a Sikh wearing a Turban.

Daily School Drop-Off Process In Charlotte, NC

This video makes my head blow up. We often talk in the office about congestion around schools- usually caused by people dropping their kids off rather than having them ride the bus or walk. Apparently this is an issue nationwide because this North Carolina Department of Transportation video shows the measures taken to keep parents dropping kids off at a Charlotte, North Carolina elementary school from backing up onto the road that runs by it.

According to Streetsblog USA, even with two lanes of cars working their way toward the drop-off point, the experiment wasn't successful though because there were SO many cars that they still spilled out into traffic. And the whole process took almost an hour to get all kids dropped off.


Officials say the district does have school buses, but many parents think they come too early, so they drop their children off on their way to work. The school draws from a radius of about 15 miles, so not all kids could walk or bike even if it were safe to do so. But it doesn't appear to be safe when they would have to try to get past all these cars on foot or bike.

Maybe it's time to require students who can to ride the bus?

Happy Holidays, Here Is When SRTC Will Be Closed

If you have government business over the next couple weeks, here's what you need to know:

SRTC is closed Monday, December 26 and Monday, January 2.

Spokane Valley and Spokane County are on the same schedule.

Spokane City Hall will be closed at noon on Fridays, Dec. 23 and 30, and all day Mondays, Dec. 26 and Jan. 2, in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. 

The Spokane City Council is not scheduled to meet on Mondays, Dec. 19, Dec. 26, and Jan.2.  Council meetings will resume on Monday, Jan. 9, with a 3:30 p.m. briefing session and 6 p.m. legislative session.  

Parking meters don’t have to be plugged Mondays, Dec. 26 and Jan. 2.  

Lawmakers Come Up With Plan For Driver's License Issue

Lawmakers think they have a solution to
Washington State's battle over its driver’s license system. Federal authorities say the state’s current standard licenses don’t meet the requirements of federal law, which means that by 2018, you will need a different form of identification to get on a plane or into many U.S. government facilities IDs are checked.

According to the Spokesman-Review, a standard Washington license or identification card doesn’t say whether you are in the country legally, as required under the REAL ID law. The state has an enhanced driver’s license that meets those requirements, but to get one, a person must show up at a state licensing office with proof of citizenship, identity and residence. And, while a standard driver’s license costs $54 for six years, an enhanced license is $108 for six years.

The plan to fix this, sponsored by Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Curtis King, R-Yakima, and House Transportation Committee Chairwoman Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, is to change the standard license so it says it’s not valid ID for federal purposes and to lower the fee slightly for the enhanced license so it would be $90 for six years.

The latter might not satisfy critics who say you can just buy a passport. At $110, a passport is cheaper in the long run than the current enhanced license because it is good for 10 years.

Bills by King and Clibborn will be discussed during the 2017 legislative session.

New Zealand Birds Put Their Own Traffic Control Plan Into Action

I have long said that animals will one day rise up against us, and this is one more example of how they are making early efforts to do so. When traffic cones along a popular tourist route in the Fiordland region of the South Island of New Zealand began mysteriously to move around, workers with the New Zealand Transport Agency checked their traffic cameras to see what was going on.

And what they found was parrots messing with the cones in an attempt to cause traffic accidents and kill humans. Okay, maybe that last part is just my take on the situation, but they definitely did see birds moving the cones around.

The answer? The Transport Agency is going with heavier cones. Killing the birds in an effort to keep them from killing off humanity is not an issue as this species of parrots, called Kea, are endangered.
Only around 5,000 of them remain.

Last Local Road Construction Update Until Spring

SPOKANE COUNTY

Country Homes Boulevard (Wall to SR 395)- Stormwater work in the raised islands and topsoil installation. Occasional lane closures for cleanup work, expect delays.

Argonne Road Near Columbia- Placing Aerial Fiber on existing poles. One lane traffic with flaggers through early January.

Geiger Blvd/W. Westbow Blvd (between Thomas Mallen Road & Soda Road)-Geotechnical core drilling. Lane restrictions with flaggers

61^st (Palouse Highway to Yale Road) and Ben Burr Road (from 57^th to 65^th)- Road Reconstruction & Waterline installation. Road Closure, Detour in place.

WSDOT

No scheduled work

SPOKANE VALLEY

No scheduled work

SPOKANE CITY
Bridge Avenue and Monroe Street CSO Work- Summit Blvd./Bridge Ave. is closed to traffic. 

Lincoln has one northbound lane open.  Lincoln southbound is closed at Broadway. This project will construct a Combined Sewer Overflow Tank (CSO) tank and the necessary piping for our Cleaner River Faster Program.

Pettet Drive/TJ Meenach Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO 12) Project- Pettet Drive is closed to traffic. The clover leaf that services TJ Meenach, Down River and Pettit Drive is in service. The leg that comes off Peteit north bound re-directs citizens to Northwest Blvd. Vehicles traveling southbound on Down River Drive have two options,  enter onto TJ Meenach or  continue under the bridge and turn uphill to Northwest Blvd. This project will build a 690,000 gallon storage facility and connections to existing CSO Basin 10 outfall.  Work also includes repaving of Pettet Drive and pedestrian/bike trail construction.

A Bike Helmet With Turn Signals

Not sure what to get your favorite cyclist for Christmas? How about a lighted helmet with turn signals. I would wear this bad boy around the office if I had one.

The website Bicycling, says the new Lumos, the “Next Generation Bicycle Helmet" has more than 60 LEDs on the front and back of the helmet. Arms tired from signaling which way you are turning? Never again. Turn signal built into the helmet do it for you. A two-button remote is mounted on the handlebars. Which is nice for winter when most cyclists generally wear black gloves that don't show when you indicate a turn.

To light the helmet up, you just charge it via USB for two hours.

Volunteers Needed for Pay-By-The-Mile Gas Tax Pilot Project

A lot of people complain about how high our gas prices are compared to other states. Many people even make the trip to Idaho to fill up to save some money. According to KIRO TV, that could change though, with a pilot project the state of Washington will begin in fall of 2017 to test a system of charging drivers for the number of miles traveled, instead of charging them a gas tax. And you can sign up to possibly part of the pilot.

For the pilot period, drivers will only track miles and will not be paying taxes based on that mileage.

The current state gas tax is 49.4 cents per gallon of gas. Because there are more fuel efficient cars now on the market, drivers are buying less gas, which means the state is collecting less in gas taxes that go to maintain our roads.

For the purpose of the simulation next year, the Washington State Transportation Commission is looking at a 2.4-cent tax per mile traveled. Compared to the amount of gas consumed, this would add up to the same amount an average driver would pay in state gas taxes.

Up to 2,000 volunteers will be asked to participate in the pilot either by tracking odometer readings, downloading an odometer app or by installing a device in cars to track miles.

If you are interested in taking part in the pilot, go to this website: For those interested in becoming part of the pilot program, go to this website; www.waroadusagecharge.org and scroll to the bottom to sign up (after reading all the info of course). I did. If I am chosen, I will of course report back on how it works.

For their news piece, KIRO talked to drivers on the impact. Here's what they found out:

• Bill Jones drives a 1986 Volkswagen Vanagon about 900 miles a month. His estimated monthly state gas tax would be $22.23. If charged by mile, he would pay $21.60 per month.
• Jaimi Tapia commutes from Tacoma to Seattle every day in a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt. She pays about $51.38 per month in state gas taxes. If charged on miles traveled, she would pay $32.64 per month.
  
  
• Owners of hybrid or electric vehicles would pay more under this plan. Cindy Gruber only fills up her Prius once a month. She’s paying less than $6 a month in state gas taxes, while she might pay more than $21 per month if charged per mile.

So far, Oregon is the only state to charge drivers by mile rather than by gas tax. 

SRTC Committee Meeting Calendar for 2017

I know I say it every year but, seriously, where did the past year go? Below is the calendar of SRTC committee meeting dates for 2017. Click the image to view it full size. I believe you can even print it if you're that into us.

School Zone Traffic Camera Fines Will Pay for Safety Projects & Police Officers

Photo courtesy of the Spokesman-Review

Fines paid by people caught speeding in school zones will be split between paying for neighborhood cops and sidewalk improvements through 2018, and the city will look into expanding enforcement cameras next year.

According to the Spokesman-Review, the council last night approved a resolution approving installation of school zone cameras at Stevens Elementary in the Chief Garry neighborhood and Lincoln Heights Elementary on the South Hill next fall, pending the outcome of a report on the effectiveness of cameras at their two existing locations.

The city estimates it will collect $1 million in fines this year from the speed zone cameras. The large amount led city officials to rethink how to spend fines collected from traffic cameras. Previously, the were only spent on traffic safety projects.

The resolution finalizes the decision to split the collected fines through 2018 between salaries for four resource officers and projects to slow traffic and allow safe walking routes to schools for students.

Councilwoman Amber Waldref, the lone vote against the proposal, said the city needed more time to explore whether the cameras were effective before expanding their use. The cameras were installed in November 2015, and the city didn’t begin issuing tickets for violations until January.

Using the money collected from speeders to fund the four new officers, who will split time between improving safety at school and addressing property crime in surrounding neighborhoods, was already agreed to in the 2017 budget approved by the City Council last month. The vote Monday confirmed the salaries of those officers would also come out of the school zone camera fund in 2018.

Grant Will Help Transport People to Medical Services

Here's some great news- The Health Sciences & Services Authority (HSSA) of Spokane County announced it will fund in 2017 $300,000 for four community non-profit organizations of its annual “Access to Care” grant competition. The organizations that will be funded were judged by the HSSA Board, and those selected provide innovative health service delivery and increased access to health care to certain populations.

The one that we're particularly happy to see is  Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners (SNAP) Spokane Ride to Care program, which will receive $100,000 to provide transportation for persons who call the 911 system and need urgent care but not an emergency department visit. This was discussed at our recent round table discussions. Ambulances are the most expensive way to get to healthcare, but many people use them as they don't have another way to get there. This uses everyone's tax dollars and also ties up our emergency rooms when there are more pressing cases. Currently, in the City of Spokane approximately 61% of area emergency calls are considered low-acuity, and 50% of these cases could be reduced by providing an alternate transportation mechanism.

Spokane Fire Department (SFD) paramedics or in-field physician consults will determine when a 911 call comes in if the patient needs emergency help or just a ride to an urgent care or doctor's office. 

Local Construction Update

SPOKANE COUNTY
Country Homes (Wall to SR 395)- Stormwater work in the raised islands, install topsoil.

Look for occasional lane closures for cleanup work. On-street parking is limited.

Geiger Blvd./Westbow Blvd. (between Thomas Mallen Road & Soda Road)- Geotechnical core drilling. Lane restrictions with flaggers.

61st (Palouse Highway to Yale Road) and Ben Burr Road (from 57th to 65th)- Road reconstruction & waterline installation. Road closure; detour in place.

Barker Road (11th Ave. to 15th Ave.)- Road work and widening. Lane restrictions, watch for flaggers.

WSDOT
No work at this time.

SPOKANE CITY
37th Avenue, Regal to Custer Streets- 37th Avenue between Freya Street and Custer is open. 

Landscape work addressing safety issues is being completed, the remaining landscape work will be completed in the spring of 2017. This work is to reconstruct the road, include pavement replacement, curbs, sidewalk, bike lanes, stormwater piping, and a 36 inch water main.

Adams Street Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) 24- Construction on CSO 24 will start in January. Preliminary work begins now with CenturyLink placing conduit and cable on Adams Street between Sprague Avenue and 1^st Avenue through Wednesday, December 14. This project will construct a 2,000,000 gallon Combined Sewer Overflow Tank (CSO) tank and piping.

Bridge Avenue and Monroe Street CSO Work- Summit Blvd./Bridge Ave. is closed. Lincoln has one northbound lane open.  Lincoln southbound is closed at Broadway with local access maintained to Anthony’s restaurant. This project will construct a Combined Sewer Overflow Tank (CSO) tank.

Pettet DriveTJ Meenach Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO 12) Project- Pettet Drive is closed to traffic.  The clover leaf that services TJ Meenach, Down River and Pettit Drive is in service. The leg that comes off of Pettit northbound will re-direct citizens to Northwest Blvd. Vehicles traveling southbound on Down River Drive have two options; enter onto TJ Meenach or continue under the bridge and turn uphill to Northwest Blvd. This project will build a 690,000 gallon storage facility and connections to existing CSO Basin 10 outfall.  Work also includes repaving of Pettet Drive and pedestrian/bike trail construction.

SPOKANE VALLEYSullivan Road Bridge - On weekdays from dawn to dusk, expect traffic to be reduced to a single lane northbound and expect turns from Indiana onto northbound Sullivan to be reduced to one lane. 

Spokane City's Largest CSO Projects Starting Soon

The City of Spokane is embarking on its largest Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) tank yet. According to the City of Spokane website, CSO 24 will have the capacity to hold over 2,000,000 gallons of combined sewage. Construction on this tank will begin in mid-January on land to the west of Adams Street between Sprague and 1st Avenue. The map below was borrowed from a City presentation and shows initial traffic impacts. Click to view it full size.

Once CSO 24 is complete it will collect combined sewage from most of the south hill and the west part of downtown Spokane. This project will be built in three phases. Phase 1 will start in January and includes all the preliminary work for the tank. Phase 2 is the construction of the CSO tank and will take 18 months to complete. Currently, Phase 3 is in the design phase and includes the landscaping work which will be above the tank.

Staffing Changes at SRTC

SRTC's Interim Executive Director Ryan Stewart

We have some big changes coming at SRTC. The agency's Executive Director of five years, Kevin
Wallace, is stepping down as Director as of tomorrow to pursue some different opportunities and start his own business. A national search will start soon to replace him.

Today, SRTC's Board appointed SRTC Senior Transportation Planner Ryan Stewart as the Interim Executive Director. Ryan has been with the agency for over eight years so knows how it runs and how to bribe- I mean motivate- each of us to work to our fullest potential.

Being down a planner and going into a year where we plan to update our long-range transportation plan and accomplish a lot of other stuff will be a challenge but we feel that we're up to the challenge.

UPS Experimenting With E-Bike Delivery

Forget the big brown truck, you will soon see a big brown bike in some neighborhoods delivering your goods.

According to Oregon Live, UPS is testing delivery by electric bicycle in Portland, a first for the company in the United States. The company has been experimenting with e-bike delivery in Europe since 2012.

It already uses a fleet of traditional bicycles during the holiday season in Portland, but the electric bikes are expected to be used year-round. They can cover more ground and carry more cargo because electric motors give the bike rider a boost. It is also easier to park in crowded areas than a large truck. And don't forget, they're emissions-free.

TV is Finally Getting on Board with Public Transit

Was this group too good to ride the subway?

What's your favorite television show from the past? What about ones set in New York City? Have you ever noticed that the use of public transit is rarely depicted in these shows? Even ones set in New York like Seinfeld and Sex and the City.

Things are changing though, according to this NPR article. More shows are starting to depict characters routinely using public transit, like Girls, the Mindy Project, Broad City and Mr. Robot. Even shows not set in New York are starting to use buses and trains more often in plot lines. Jane the Virgin goes into labor on the bus. The characters on Atlanta have some deep conversations on buses.

And transit advocates are hoping the trend will continue, saying that positive depictions of people using ways to get around other than driving will get more people to do so in real life.

County Budget Shift Not Anticipated to Affect Roads Department

In the 2017 budget passed by Spokane County Commissioners on Monday, the roads department will get a $7 million budget increase next year. Commissioners also shifted $5 million in taxing authority from the “road fund banked capacity” to the county’s general fund, which includes spending on courts, the sheriff’s office and the jail.

This has some people worried about the impact to area roads and, according to the Spokesman-Review, Commissioner Al French he’s received numerous phone calls from residents concerned about how their property taxes will be spent. Officials say no money will be taken from the road fund. Instead, the money going into the general fund will come from tax increases.

The confusion comes from the terms used. "Road fund money" and "road fund tax capacity” are apparently two different things. Washington counties are allowed to raise property taxes 1 percent each year. If they don’t use the full 1 percent, they can “bank,” or accumulate, the remaining percentage and levy it later. Spokane County didn’t take a 1-percent property tax increase for the road fund for years. That “banked capacity,” or left-over authority to tax, is being transferred to the general fund and will amount to $5 million in revenue next year.

That money could be collected for the road fund, but county officials feel there’s more need for it in the general fund. So if they didn't use the banking option, that money never would have gone into the road fund anyway.

French said some of the new general fund money will be spent on capital improvements, and some will be used to create a “water bank,” in which property owners buy and sell water rights. The water bank is an effort to ease building permit restrictions under the state Supreme Court’s controversial Hirst decision.

The remaining banked capacity money will be used to raise the leftover balance of the general fund in order to keep the County's bond rating up.

Only residents in unincorporated parts of the county pay property taxes for the road fund, but all county residents will contribute to the $5 million being transferred into the general fund, Wrigley said.

There Are Monsters In Them Thar Subways

Wednesday, why do you taunt me?? Well, while you're killing time until Friday, here is something to keep your mind off Wednesday. Subway monsters. Yes, monsters in New York's subway. And here's proof.


For the past four years, Brooklynite Ben Rubin has been using his daily commute time on the subway to take photos of his fellow riders, then dress them up a little. With monsters and political figures.

He uses an iPad drawing app to make his photos more fun, then posts his creations on Instagram and
Facebook, under the name Subway Doodle. 

While most of his drawings are just for fun, some are commentary on what he sees on the subway or on current politics. For instance, last year, he posted a picture of cartoon Trump building a brick wall around a Latino rider right in the middle of a subway car.

Public Invited to Discuss I90 congestion at Open House

Interstate 90 at Harvard Road in Liberty Lake.

The Washington State Department of Transportation is starting an  Interstate 90/Four Lakes to Idaho Operational Study and wants to tell you about it. So you are invited to an informational open house Tuesday, Dec. 13.

I-90 in the Spokane area is experiencing increased congestion, primarily during peak commute hours, although congestion outside of peak periods is also on the rise. This congestion increases the possibility of collisions occurring on the freeway. 

Staff from the WSDOT will be on hand to listen to public feedback on improving safety and operations of the freeway and answer questions about the study. There will not be a formal presentation, and the public is free to stop in anytime during the open house from 5-8 p.m. in the North Central High School cafeteria at 1600 N. Howard Street.

This study will emphasize low-cost strategies to efficiently move traffic on the existing system while improving safety. It will examine collision history and operational performance in close detail and make recommendations for project strategies.

Local Road Construction Update

SPOKANE COUNTYCountry Homes (Wall to SR 395)- Stormwater work in the raised islands, install topsoil.
Watch for occasional lane closures for cleanup work, expect delays. On-street parking is limited.

Holcomb Road (North side of Hwy 206)- Replace failing culverts under the road. Road closed with a detour in place.

SPOKANE VALLEY
7^th Avenue just east of Havana - Closed around the clock through Thursday, December 8 for utility work. Signs and/or flaggers will direct traffic through or around the work areas. Expect congestion and delays. 

Sullivan Road Bridge - Expect reductions to a single lane northbound and closure of one southbound lane from dawn until dusk weekdays, with turns from Indiana onto northbound Sullivan reduced to one lane.

SPOKANE CITY

Leaf Pickup-  Leaf Packer Pickup – Crews are working in Audubon south of Garland –north of Northwest Blvd. – west of Monroe and east of Northwest Blvd. RResidential Packer Leaf Sweeping- Downriver area bound by south of Northwest Boulevard to north of Downriver Drive – west of TJ Meenach Drive and east of Downriver Park/Aubrey L. White Parkway. 

37th Avenue, Regal Street to Custer Street- 37^th Avenue from Freya to Havana Street is closed.  The detour route is Glenrose to Palouse Highway to Regal Street.  At this time landscape work is left. Only work addressing safety issues will be completed this year and the rest will be completed in spring of 2017.

This project reconstructed the road, including pavement replacement, curbs, sidewalk, bike lanes, stormwater piping, and a 36 inch water main.

Bridge Avenue and Monroe Street CSO Work- Summit Boulevard/Bridge Avenue is closed to traffic. Lincoln has one northbound lane open.  Lincoln southbound is closed at Broadway with local access maintained to Anthony’s restaurant and parking lots. This project will construct a Combined Sewer Overflow Tank (CSO) tank and piping.

Pettet Drive/TJ Meenach Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO 12) Project-  This project will build a 690,000 gallon storage facility. Work also includes repaving of Pettet Drive and pedestrian/bike trail construction.

Pettet Drive is closed to traffic. The clover leaf that services TJ Meenach, Down River and Pettet Drive will be in service. The leg that comes off of Pettit north bound redirects citizens to Northwest Blvd. Vehicles traveling southbound on Down River Drive have two options;  enter onto TJ Meenach or continue under the bridge and turn uphill to Northwest Blvd.

WSDOT
No work scheduled.

SRTC Board Meeting This Thursday

The final meeting of the SRTC Board for 2016 is this Thursday, Dec. 8. The meeting agenda is here.  Everyone is welcome at all SRTC Board meetings so if something grabs your attention, feel free to attend. If you do come to this meeting, be aware that it starts with an executive session to appoint a new interim director for SRTC, which isn't open to the public and could take a while. So, while the meeting officially starts at 1 p.m. it could be later when the other agenda items start.