North Spokane Corridor Foundations Rise as Stage 3 Construction Advances

September 13, 2026

Crews are now building foundations for an elevated four-lane highway segment of the North Spokane Corridor (NSC), a 10.5-mile freeway decades in the making. Seven of the corridor’s eight highway miles are already open, and roughly $650 million of construction has been completed to date.

Spokane-based Max J. Kuney Co. (Kuney Construction) is the general contractor on Stage 3, the Sprague Avenue-to-Alki Avenue segment, which began construction in September 2025 and is expected to run through 2027. Crews are currently building drilled shafts, rebar, and bridge pier foundations; prestressed girders formed at a Knife River Corp. plant in Newman Lake are set to be installed in the coming months.

Kuney also won the adjacent Stage 2 contract (Mission Avenue to Alki Avenue) in February 2026, one of the most expensive highway contracts in Eastern Washington’s history, according to Spokane Journal of Business reporting. That stage includes a half interchange at Trent Avenue with a new northbound on-ramp, southbound off-ramp, and roundabout. Washington’s Legislature has added funding to cover corridor cost escalation, according to WSDOT Eastern Region testimony, securing the corridor’s final three phases. Three additional I-90 connection projects, the segments that will finally tie the NSC into I-90 and complete the corridor, are expected to advertise for bid in 2026 and 2027, with full corridor completion projected for around 2029 to the early 2030s.

Why this matters for contractors: This is the biggest, longest-running heavy-civil opportunity in Eastern Washington. With Stage 2 and Stage 3 both underway and three I-90 connection projects advertising over the next year, now is the time for structural, drilling, and utility-relocation subs to get in front of Kuney and WSDOT Eastern Region.