The city of Spokane has issued an environmental approval for two remaining phases in a planned $6 million city project to extend a paved link from the Centennial Trail in West Spokane to the trailhead of the Columbia Plateau Trail at Fish Lake, south of Spokane.

The city also continues to seek money to build the paved link, and now could be close to securing almost the rest of the $2 million it needs to construct the second of three phases, if it gets about $790,000 in federal economic stimulus dollars, says Katherine Miller, a senior engineer with the city.

Design work is nearly complete for that second phase of the trail, which when all phases of work are done, eventually would stretch about 10.5 miles between Fish Lake and Government Way in Spokane, Miller says. The second phase would extend the trail almost 4.5 miles south from a trailhead near Government Way and the Sunset Highway, in West Spokane, to the north end of a 3.5-mile paved section of the trail about in the middle of the overall route.

Fish Lake is located on Cheney-Spokane Road near an old railway right-of-way owned by the city of Spokane. One end of the Columbia Plateau Trail already extends to Fish Lake.

The city has secured a $1 million grant for the second phase from the Washington state Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development. Miller says the city has been "scratching under every rock" to come up with the other funds needed to pave that section of trail and to add a bathroom facility at the trailhead.

"If we can't get any (more) money, we will at least do a gravel trail," and pave it later, though the city hopes to save money in the long run by completing all of the work at once, Miller says.

As a "shovel-ready" project, the Fish Lake trail's second phase stands to receive $308,000 in federal stimulus funds distributed through the Spokane Regional Transportation Council (SRTC), says Jeff Selle, SRTC's manager of governmental affairs. The SRTC board was expected to approve at its March 12 meeting a list of projects recommended to receive shares of the $10.4 million in stimulus money it has to distribute.

In addition, the SRTC board was expected to consider the possibility of allocating another about $470,000 in remaining stimulus funds to the project, which would cover much of the cost to complete the paving of phase two, Selle says.

The Spokane office of Portland-based David Evans & Associates Inc. is designing the two remaining sections of the trail.

After the second phase is completed, the city likely will seek money from local sources to help complete the third and final phase, which will connect the trail to the Fish Lake trailhead of the Columbia Plateau Trail. That final phase is expected to cost roughly $4 million, largely because it will include construction of two bridges over an active rail line, Miller says.