Lincoln Street between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Main Avenue has been closed temporarily while the city readies it for a two-year detour route next to the Downtown Library. According to the Spokesman-Review, work starts in April on a stormwater collection tank on the north side of Spokane Falls Boulevard near the library and to the west of City Hall and River Park Square. That project will close Spokane Falls Boulevard at Lincoln for almost two years.
The 2.2-million gallon stormwater collection tank will prevent spills of a combination of raw sewage and stormwater during storms and runoff events. It tank will be covered with a new plaza overlooking the lower Spokane Falls. Construction is expected to be finished in early 2019.
To get traffic through the area, the city is reversing the direction of travel on Lincoln between Main Avenue and Spokane Falls. Rather than being a one-way northbound street as it had been, Lincoln will be reversed into a two-lane southbound street.
At Main Avenue, the left hand lane will be forced to turn left and go east on Main. The right-hand lane will turn right and go west on Main heading toward Monroe Street. The crosswalk on the west side of the intersection will be closed for safety reasons.
Access to River Park Square’s garage beneath the Nordstrom store will remain open to northbound vehicles on Lincoln at Main. Vehicles leaving RPS or City Hall will have to use the link of Lincoln from Spokane Falls to Main to exit the area.
Spokane Transit Authority has closed the stop at Lincoln and Spokane Falls and rerouted its buses during the project, which will affect six routes, including the No. 20 to Spokane Falls Community College; the No. 21 to West Broadway Avenue; the No. 22 to Northwest Boulevard; the No. 23 to Maple and Ash streets; the No. 24 on North Monroe and the No. 124 North Express bus. Passengers must board those buses at the Plaza downtown or the north end of the Monroe Street Bridge.
This week’s closure of Lincoln, expected to last three weeks, is to move utility lines. Currently, contractors are working in Lincoln to move utility lines, which forced this week’s closure.