SPOKANE, Wash. — Drivers who use TJ Meenach Drive will need to find another route. On Monday morning, TJ Meenach Drive closed for a five-month construction project.
The closure will affect Kate Hilderman, an assistant manager at the nearby Papa Murphy's.
"I think it will affect business a little bit, but not terrible," Hilderman said.
She's been working there for more than three years and just heard about the road closure less than a week ago.
"I'm not a fan of it because I take that road every day when I travel," HIlderman said,
On Monday morning, the city of Spokane closed the stretch of TJ Meenach Drive between Northwest Boulevard and Pettet Drive. It's for the final stage of the Cochran Basin project to help protect the Spokane River. Other nearby business owners are also not pleased.
"We have a lot of customers coming down that way, so we'll be definitely impacted with this road closure," said Ganga Rai, who owns a gas station right across from TJ Meenach Drive.
The project includes installing new sewer pipes and resurfacing the road. The hope is to add a filtration system in order to eliminate pollutants before water enters the Spokane River.
The construction will also mean detours. According to the city, traffic will be rerouted at the Pettet Drive interchange and detoured via Maxwell Avenue and the Maple/Ash corridor. It's leaving Hilderman a little worried.
"I could see a few car wrecks or just on circumstance-wise, people might not be used to it. Spokane drivers are just a little iffy, especially with the weather," Hilderman said.
The city says the street closure is expected to last for about five months, with an estimated reopening in August.
"I saw only the starting date and I thought maybe a week or a month," Rai said. "And when they dropped the flyers or the paperwork and I saw this until August."
A new disc golf course and easier river access will also be added as part of the project.
For a full list of detours, click here.
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