September 21, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Michael Baumgartner (WA-05) announced that the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation has approved a federal grant for $2,236,500 to Spokane County to undertake a $3,195,000 project for the reconstruction of Thorpe Road. This directly supports Fairchild Air Force Base by constructing better transportation access. 

“This is a major win for the operational resilience of Fairchild Air Force Base (FAFB), the beating heart of the Spokane community,” said Congressman Baumgartner. “This is a crucial investment in national security that will enhance timely response and grant Air Force personnel easier access to one of the most strategic military installations in the US Air Forces’s inventory – Fairchild Air Force Base – home to the largest US air refueling wing in the world.” 

Currently, Fairchild relies on a single access gate to manage the flow of personnel, goods, and vehicles. This bottleneck not only creates significant congestion and delay, but undermines core principles of military readiness, emergency responsiveness, and base security. This project will reconstruct and modernize Thorpe Road to fully enable the operation of a secondary access gate. The resulting benefits are substantial: improving response times during recalls and emergencies, enhancing quality of life for service members and families, reducing base-related congestion, and strengthening  disaster resiliency. 

“I also want to recognize the incredible work of Commissioner Al French and Spokane County Director of Public Works Kyle Twohig in securing this funding,” said Congressman Baumgartner. “They saw the need for this project and worked to get it across the finish line. This is exactly the kind of partnership we need between local leaders and the federal government to strengthen Fairchild, improve access for our service members, and make our community more resilient.”

Getting through the main gate at Fairchild can be a challenge, even outside of rush hour. The current gate is only two travel lanes wide, creating unnecessary congestion and delays. By comparison, installations on the west side of the state, including McChord Field and Fort Lewis, have entry points that are four lanes wide or more. Building the Thorpe Road access and secondary gate to accommodate greater traffic capacity will significantly improve the speed and ease of entry while reducing congestion at the main gate.