Great News for Spokane Valley! U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today announced that the City of Spokane Valley will receive more than $9 million to improve the railroad crossings at Barker and Flora roads through a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants program. The competitive grant would eliminate two railroad crossings, help improve the safety and efficiency of freight and rail movement in Spokane Valley, and increase access for emergency responders, residents, and businesses. Additionally, the investment would support the development of 600 acres of industrial, mixed use, and commercial land which is currently available but difficult to access due to the combination of rail and truck traffic.
Since Senator Murray created the TIGER program in 2009, it has awarded $5.1 billion to help facilitate 421 projects in every state in the country, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. Of that total, Washington state has received $239 million to support 16 projects, including: the Tacoma LINK Expansion, a new ferry terminal in Mukilteo, the North Spokane Corridor, the Mercer Corridor Redevelopment project in Seattle, the South Park Bridge Replacement in King County, the West Vancouver Freight Access project at the Port of Vancouver, improvements to I-5 to relieve congestion around Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and terminal modernization projects at the Ports of Seattle and Everett. TIGER is a unique, cost-effective program that helps state and local agencies tackle complex transportation challenges in their communities, while putting people to work and boosting regional economies.