Category: North

Nighttime work on the Long Bridge south of Sandpoint is scheduled to begin in early March to reinforce and protect the driving surface.

Taking advantage of the mild winter weather, crews are getting a jump start on this project early in the season by first grinding down the existing roadway. Crews will then return in the summer to resurface the bridge to provide better traction and protect it from regular wear and tear from traffic and the weather.

This initial phase is expected to take up to two weeks, and all work will be completed overnight from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. to avoid slowing down traffic during the day. Flaggers will be staged at either end of the bridge allowing a single, alternating lane of traffic to pass while crews work their way across the structure. This work is largely dependent on weather conditions. Digital messaging boards will be used to alert drivers ahead of the anticipated start date.

Work later this summer will take approximately one month to complete. During this time, drivers will encounter a similar experience during nighttime hours with traffic reduced to a single lane.

Project Manager Steve Nettleton explains that this work is necessary upkeep on the bridge surface.

“By doing this work now, we’re able to take a different approach to grinding the deck and get the work done much quicker,” Nettleton said.

Drivers should pay attention to digital messaging boards, and plan ahead for delays by utilizing Idaho’s 511 system for real-time updates.

Work is ongoing in the City of St. Maries to upgrade city water, sewer, and drainage lines. The Idaho Transportation Department has partnered with the city, contributing approximately $1 million dollars to its project so that much-needed paving over the work area could improve stretches of State Highways 3 and 5.  

According to St. Maries Public Works Director Jeff Keen, construction on this project has been challenging due to a variety of unique factors such as system layout, depth, and antiquated materials from the days of old.  

“This project isn’t just beneficial to the city, but to the state as well, allowing us to fix sink holes and deficiencies in the roadways caused over the years by failing infrastructure buried underneath such as clay pipes,” Keen said.  

To make the project more manageable, engineers have designed it in two phases with the first addressing a section of SH-3, or W. College Ave, between 1^st and 2^nd Street. Work through this initial phase is nearing completion, with final paving anticipated to begin within the next two weeks depending on weather. Detour routes will remain in place until paving is completed and project directors are working closely with ITD to keep the Idaho 511 system updated. 

The second phase of this project will address SH-5 (Main Street) from 11^th Street to 15^th Street and is set to begin construction in spring of 2024. Drivers can expect similar road closures and detours in this future phase.  

As partners in safety, ITD encourages motorists to be aware of ongoing traffic impacts and plan their commutes accordingly. Use caution while traveling through work zones, be patient, and drive for conditions to help crews complete this project quickly and safely ahead of winter. 

Specific project details are available through the city of St. Maries and as always, up-to-date traffic impact information is available online through Idaho 511 or by downloading the Idaho 511 app to your device. 

Since mid-September, drivers in North Idaho may have noticed a change to late-night driving on U.S. Highway 95 through Coeur d’Alene. Previously, signals through the corridor used to flash yellow or red during late night hours to allow drivers already on the highway more mobility while traffic volumes were low. That pattern is no more, having been replaced by a detection and activation system designed to improve safety and prioritize northbound and southbound traffic flow.

“There are a variety of factors that influenced this change,” said Damon Allen, the district engineer for the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD). “The primary driving factor behind this change is safety.”

In recent years local law enforcement agencies have reported an uptick in late night near-miss crashes at signalized intersections with more drivers entering US-95 from side streets failing to yield.

“If you look at the data, moving away from any sort of nighttime flash pattern is trending nationwide, and the reason is safety,” Allen said.

According to ITD Engineer Manager Lee Bernardi who oversees the traffic section, problems arose from drivers on side streets not realizing that northbound and southbound traffic on US-95 had a flashing yellow light, rather than a flashing red. Signals are not designed for other-directional traffic to be able to see the lit color, so it’s understandable for a driver attempting to cross US-95 with a flashing red to assume opposing traffic also has a flashing red, and would treat it as a four-way stop rather than yielding to oncoming vehicles.

Bernardi continued, “As drivers, we’re conditioned to treat flashing red lights one way, and flashing yellow lights entirely differently. Maintaining complex intersections that combine these two conflicting behaviors, coupled with the amount of growth this area has seen in recent years, it’s logical to transition to a solution that eliminates assumptions on the part of motorists.”

In addition, updating to a nighttime activation system will keep the corridor uniform with the functionality of other signals throughout the area managed by local highway districts and cities.

“It makes sense for drivers to have the same expectations on all primary roadways in the area regardless of jurisdiction or time of day, and eliminating the nighttime flash on US-95 through Coeur d’Alene does exactly that,” said Allen.

The good news for drivers is that, despite this recent change, there should be a relatively low impact to their late-night mobility. Thanks to recent radar and detection equipment upgrades at every intersection along US-95 between Interstate 90 and Lancaster Road, each signal can operate independently of timing cycles and relies simply on a ‘see it and serve it’ strategy.

Each night, when the signals change over to the activation schedule, northbound and southbound lights are designed to rest on green, prioritizing the primary flow of traffic. Typically, the only time the flow of US-95 should be interrupted is when the signals detect either turning or cross-street traffic waiting at an intersection. The lights will quickly transition to serve those waiting vehicles and then get right back to green, rather than having to wait through a timing cycle for each lane. Likewise, cross street traffic should notice a decrease in wait times to get through an intersection.

“Our primary goal is to keep traffic moving,” said Allen. “We want drivers to remember that we are also in the business of efficiency, while maintaining a balance between mobility and safety for everyone on the road.”