Wellesley Avenue closing pushed back again

November 20, 2019 10:58 PM

Erin Robinson,

Posted: November 20, 2019 10:58 PM

Updated: May 20, 2021 12:09 PM

by Erin Robinson

Copyright 2019 KXLY.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without prior permission.
A stretch of Wellesley will close for 3 years to make room for North Spokane Corridor.
Copyright 2019 KXLY.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without prior permission.
A stretch of Wellesley will close for 3 years to make room for North Spokane Corridor.
Copyright 2019 KXLY.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without prior permission.
A stretch of Wellesley will close for 3 years to make room for North Spokane Corridor.
Copyright 2019 KXLY.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without prior permission.
A stretch of Wellesley will close for 3 years to make room for North Spokane Corridor.

SPOKANE, Wash. — The start of the three-year Wellesley Avenue closing has been pushed back again.

Wellesley Avenue was supposed to close between Freya and Market Streets on Wednesday, but a delayed reopening on nearby Euclid pushed the project back to Thursday. Now, another weather delay has pushed the closing back once again.

WSDOT crews will not be able to close Wellesley Avenue until Euclid reopens. As of now, WSDOT hopes to reopen Euclid on Thursday.

The work on the Wellesley Avenue interchange is part of the second BNSF Realignment project. This includes the realignment and relocation of the tracks from Rowan to Cleveland Avenues to make way for the future NSC mainline alignment. The project expected to be completed at the end of 2022.

When fully complete, the freeway will be a 60-mile per hour, 10.5-mile long north/south road connecting to I-90 on the south end (just west of the existing Thor/Freya Interchange) and US 2 (at Farwell Road) and US 395 (at Wandermere) on the north end.

Interchanges along the corridor will be located at Trent Avenue (SR 290), Wellesley Avenue, Francis/Freya Street, Parksmith Drive, US 2 and US 395 at Wandermere.

Work on the North Spokane Corridor has been ongoing since 2001 and will cost approximately $879 million.

The goal is to decrease travel time, fuel usage and congestion, while improving safety on local arterials.

According to the Washington Department of Transportation, travel time between Wandermere and I-90 will be shortened by about 12 minutes and the north/south freeway will lead to fewer trucks on arterials.