SPOKANE, Wash. — About a mile of the Centennial trail is getting a facelift in West Central Spokane. The City of Spokane started construction on the Summit Gap Project this week. For the time being, people using that portion of the trail will be asked to follow the detour signs around that area.
The 0.9 mile stretch of trail under construction follows along Summit Boulevard, starting at Boone Avenue and ending at Pettet Drive.
Summit Boulevard is very wide, and it is riddled with crumbling sidewalks. This does not meet trail standards along the rest of the 39-mile span in Washington.
The path may be torn up now, but come this fall, trail users will enjoy walking on a newly paved 10- to 12-foot-wide trail along Summit Boulevard.
"It's great to see it getting updated because it really needed it," Joleen Green told KREM 2's Amanda Roley on her walk along the Centennial Trail.
Spokane City Public Works Director Marlene Feist said the renovation will be a benefit to pedestrians and bicyclists because they will no longer have to be in the street.
"It'll have an easy route into downtown and back out of downtown if they want to use it for commuting route, which is exciting," Feist said. "It's also really good for the neighbors, who are proud of that area, to have that sort of extra recreational opportunity."
Friends of the Centennial Trail asked the City of Spokane to consider renovating the Summit Gap of the Centennial to look like High Drive on Spokane's south hill.
"We like it along the trail on Summit Boulevard because you see wildlife, wildflowers and you always greet people who are friendly and warm," Centennial Trail user Arnold Sather said.
According to Feist, the city has seen an increase in the trail's usage in the community.
The city's bike and pedestrian counter in Kendall Yards counted about 250,000 users annually in both 2019 and 2020. Feist said this number has grown steadily since that section of the trail opened in 2013, which leads to the newest section west of Kendall Yards.
"It's exciting for us to see how much that trail has been appreciated and utilized in our community," Feist said. "When the new trail section, for example, opened in Kendall Yards, the amount of utilization that it got is amazing. And it's still used that way today. If you look out those windows in city hall, like I do every day, you really do see how much those connections are used on a day-to-day basis."