US 395 – Hafer Road to Chewelah – Paving & Complete Streets

US 395 from Hafer Rd to Chewelah (Sand Canyon Rd) – milepost 202.77 to 207.80 – has been identified as needing the asphalt concrete pavement rehabilitated to preserve the roadway structure and the public investment in highways. The original scope of this project involved rehabilitating the existing pavement with a hot mix asphalt pavement and upgrade basic safety features within the project limits to maintain safe highway operations. Additionally, the project is to consider a request by the City of Chewelah to restripe US 395 within the City Limits to include northbound/southbound left turn lanes at Main Ave and a two-way center left turn lane for the rest of the corridor.

In 2022, Move Ahead Washington was passed by the Washington State Legislature, which included a requirement for WSDOT to incorporate principles of Complete Streets into transportation projects with an estimated budget greater than $500,000 and starting design on or after July 1, 2022. To aid in the implementation of this requirement, WSDOT established a Complete Streets process that first screens all programmed projects for Complete Streets applicability, and subsequently provides a planning and conceptual design phase – known as pre-design – and target outcomes for projects that are required to incorporate Complete Streets. More information about the Complete Streets requirement and WSDOT’s implementation process is available on WSDOT’s Complete Streets page.

The Complete Streets screening process found the US 395 Hafer Rd to Chewelah paving project to require implementation of the Complete Streets requirement within the City of Chewelah and explore the need of Complete Streets from the southern boundary of Chewelah to the Spokane Tribe’s Mistequa Village development. A pre-design phase was initiated to conduct this analysis and identify the preferred Complete Streets implementation, including an analysis of the City of Chewelah’s request to restripe US 395 with a 3-lane cross-section within City Limits. The pre-design phase includes the following tasks:

• Coordination with local and regional jurisdictions
• Identification of Complete Streets gaps and needs
• Community engagement
• Development and selection of preferred Complete Streets alternatives
• 30% design of preferred alternatives
• Documentation

Currently, the pre-design phase has finished the gaps analysis stage and is finalizing the development of Complete Streets strategies for US 395 from South Street to Sand Canyon Road. The gaps analysis stage found that the incorporation of Complete Streets principles south of the City of Chewelah is outside the scope and requirements of this project.