New design to address bike lanes, parking configurations in Pullman

Main Street will not have a continued bike lane in new design plans for downtown Pullman.

The Pullman City Council met with Welch Comer team members to receive an update on Project Downtown. Welch Comer, an urban renewal company in Coeur d’Alene, reported it is 60% done with the final design stage. The project is still years away from being completed, but the firm reported it is making steady progress in its early development.

Project Downtown is a city-led effort to revitalize the town’s streets, public spaces and infrastructure, according to its website. Launched in the summer of 2022, residents were able to comment on what they would like to see improved throughout the downtown area. Welch Comer reported they moved into their second phase to finalize design plans in October 2022, according to past reporting.

President Joe Biden’s $1.8 trillion American Rescue Plan Act is helping to fund the project. The act provided relief to U.S. cities by helping to boost economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the ARPA website. The Washington Association of Washington Cities reported $65.1 billion was allocated to the state to fund public health expenditures, water, sewage, infrastructure and lost revenue.

Matt Gillis, vice president of Welch Comer, estimates the project will cost around $9.4 million. Main Street and Grand Avenue will be prioritized, and work on Davis Way, Olsen Street, Kamiaken Street, Pine Street and Pine Street Plaza will follow. According to Gillis, the work on Main Street will cost around $7.5 million, Grand Avenue is estimated to amount to $1.6 million, Davis Way will cost about $150,000, Olsen Street will total to about $200,000, Kamiaken Street will amount to around $1,000,000, Pine Street will cost about $800,000 and Pine Street Plaza totals to around $100,000.

Welch Comer will continue to finalize designs until March, when the project will be moved to a bid phase until May. Gillis anticipates construction on Main Street to begin in late May, after Washington State University’s spring semester has ended. Before construction begins, the project is expected to receive a contract awarded in late April.

Construction is slated to continue through August to reach substantial completion. Gillis said substantial completion is when a project is done enough to give public access to the area. Construction crews will resume work on Grand, Davis, Olsen, Pine and Kamiaken in the early summer of 2024.

Gillis said traffic will be diverted from Main to Paradise Street while construction work is being done. Paradise, currently a one-way street, will be turned into a two-way traffic system. Gillis said a temporary truck bypass will be added on Bishop to support traffic.

The biggest planned change to Main Street will be lane configuration. Gillis said the road will transition from three lanes on Main to two lanes from Kamiaken to Spring Street.

A bike lane will be provided on Main until Kamiaken, where it will be diverted north to avoid Grand. Gillis said a bike lane cannot be pushed all the way to Grand because it creates a safety issue. He added another path will be installed north of Kamiaken to foster connectivity.

Main will also introduce curb bulbs at intersections to shorten the crosswalk for pedestrian safety.

Grand’s sidewalks will be removed and replaced on the west side, Gillis said, as well as accompanying features like signs, lights, irrigation and pavers.

Davis’ current pathway will be removed and replaced to create a wider, shared-use path. Gillis said some parking stalls will be removed to add a dedicated right-turn lane to aid with current traffic challenges.

Olsen will receive pavement marking changes, parallel parking stalls will be removed and angle parking will be added. Gillis said Olsen will gain eight parking stalls. Curb bulbs will also be added to the street to make it ADA compliant.

Welch Comer plans on providing one ADA parking stall per block throughout downtown.

Kamiaken and Pine will also have pavement marking changes — parallel parking will be removed and angle parking will be installed on one side.

To mitigate congestion, Gillis recommended downtown have a smart traffic system with Centracs, an automatic real-time adjuster to help signals communicate. The system will adapt signals autonomously and will adjust to traffic flow. Gillis said when there is more traffic, the Centracs-enabled signals will adjust to have extended green times to clear out traffic. The firm plans on adding these systems to five lights in downtown — two on Main Street, two on Grand Avenue and one at the intersection.

Engineers at Welch Comer will meet with the Pullman City Council in February to provide updates on their design progress and share funding details.

For more information on Project Downtown, visit projectdowntownpullman.org.

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com or on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce.