The closure accommodated utility work needed for a project that will manage stormwater from some City streets and streets and other hard surfaces within the Kendall Yards development. The project required significant excavation work at the north end of the bridge.
In an effort to minimize future traffic disruptions on Monroe, City and private utility crews took advantage of the bridge closure to take care of needed repairs and maintenance such as signal and lighting work, installation of a sewer monitoring cellular antenna, and patching.
The $1.6 million joint City of Spokane-Kendall Yards project will catch stormwater that is currently flowing, untreated, into the Spokane River. It will direct runoff to a retention tank, and then pump it to a treatment area in a new park being built to the west on the Kendall Yards site, called Olmsted Green.
The park will include grass-lined swales that store and filter the stormwater, then percolate it into the ground. This green solution shares stormwater treatment and disposal with a recreational site use. Only the biggest events get much of the park wet for a brief time.