(The Center Square) – The Spokane Planning Commission recommended adding 15 projects, worth around $32 million, to the city’s 6-year Streets Capital Improvement Plan on Wednesday.
The Spokane City Council updates the street program every year based on the commission’s recommendations. Wednesday’s unanimous vote sent several new projects to the council’s committee meeting scheduled for Monday, prioritizing “road diets” and other traffic-calming measures.
Around half of the projects focus on enhancing bicycle and pedestrian traffic safety, building on Mayor Lisa Brown’s and some of the city council’s multi-modal goals. Brown recently laid out a plan to reduce traffic-related deaths after recording 20 last year and several already in 2025.
“Fifteen new projects go to the program, seven are grant-funded, totaling roughly $12 million,” Principal Engineer Kevin Picanco told the commission on Wednesday. “The others are various types of projects. Some are impact fee projects; some are kind of long-range.”
Of the 15 projects, only 11 include cost estimates, adding up to more than $32 million. The other four are awaiting estimates and will inflate that figure. The most expensive initiatives are a $8.5 million “27 by 2027” bike network and a $6.3 million plan to improve intersections along 37th Avenue.
Picanco said the bike network could include multiple projects over the coming years. Spokane plans to tackle it through several phases, installing a few smaller aspects this year. The city still needs to secure funding for construction but has some money set aside to get rolling.
One of the most significant projects, which doesn’t include an estimate, could eventually fully reconstruct a half-mile of Sprague Avenue between Post and Division streets. The city wants to look at what that may entail, such as replacing signals, lane revisions, utilities and other upgrades.
“This is one of our mega projects,” Picanco said. “What the scope of this project entails remains to be seen … we won’t start it this coming year, probably get into it more in [2027-28].”
A $1.6 million grant-funded project will replace more than 30 pedestrian crossings with high-visibility crosswalks next year. Another $2 million project, with over 80% grant-funded, will improve crossings around five schools north of the Spokane River based on student walking routes.
Other projects will install bike lanes, traffic signals and other improvements along intersections across the city. Picano said the council will review the recommendations on Monday before hosting hearings on the updated program next month. He expects a vote on adoption around June 23.
“This is just adding the projects to the list,” Vice President Ryan Patterson clarified before the commission approved the recommendations. “The actual details of how they’ll be implemented will still be defined by the appropriate groups before they go out to bid.”
