Category: North

The final phase of a two-year project will begin Monday, March 6, to extend the three-lane section of U.S. Highway 95 from Alderson Lane to Labrosse Hill Street in Bonners Ferry.

“This project will add wider shoulders, sidewalks and lighting to the highway to make it safer and more in line with features you’d find in city limits,” Project Manager Phil Stout said.

Drivers can generally expect a lane to be open in each direction until construction ends in October. Most work will take place during the day, with some night work and detours possible as intersections and driveways are improved.

Starting next week the intersection at US-95 and Pine Island will be closed for the entire duration of construction so that it can be realigned to lessen the incline on the side street and make it easier to turn on and off the highway. All traffic will be detoured to Mirror Lake Road and Riverside Street, but there may be periods of time as the work allows when local passenger-vehicle traffic will be allowed use the intersection.

“ITD has spent four summers so far building these improvements from the Kootenai River Bridge to Eisenhower Street,” Stout said. “This is the last stretch of a multi-year project.”

Learn more about construction that first began in 2018 at itdprojects.org/us95bonnersferry.

Next week the Idaho Transportation Department will start the final construction season to improve safety by replacing the Interstate 90 overpasses at Division Street and Elizabeth Park Road in Kellogg.

Crews will first complete work to improve drainage throughout the work zone. After several weeks, crews will move onto replacing the westbound bridges, including full demolition and reconstruction. The final construction activities will include repaving both streets under the overpasses.

Construction is anticipated to start Monday, February 6, at which time traffic on I-90 will be restricted to one lane in each direction at all times through October.

Motorists should plan for the following impacts:

Division Street:

• Both lanes will be open under the I-90 overpass with periodic closures as needed.
• On-street parking under the overpass will not be allowed.
• Sidewalks will be closed under I-90 with a signed pedestrian detour.

Elizabeth Park Road:

• Drivers can expect one-way alternating traffic controlled by temporary traffic signals on Elizabeth Park Road under I-90.
• In addition to the daily construction schedule, Elizabeth Park Road will be closed for several nights as crews complete work. Digital message boards will provide warnings at least one week in advance of any road closures.

In 2022 crews replaced the eastbound bridges and widened the eastbound on-ramp at Division Street.

The bridges date back to the 1960s. For up-to-date information on this project, please visit itdprojects.org/i90divisionelizabeth.

Construction will also begin later this spring in the Osburn area. Over the next two years, ITD will resurface I-90 from the Big Creek Exit to West Wallace Exit. This year crews will replace concrete with asphalt between Osburn and Wallace, and next year they will work between Big Creek and Wallace. Drivers can expect one lane closure in each direction on I-90 at all times during each construction season.

Travelers should check 511.idaho.gov to learn about traffic impacts.

Coeur d’Alene – In recent days, Idaho has experienced above average temperatures and precipitation which can lead to significant damage to highways, prompting state and local transportation agencies to enforce load restrictions. In an effort to reduce damage to roadways, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has made the decision to restrict several routes in North Idaho.

Starting in the evening hours of Friday (Feb. 3) load limit restrictions will be in place on four state highways in the region: SH-3, SH-5, SH-54 and SH-53. Crews will continue to closely monitor road and weather conditions to determine if more routes will be subject to load restrictions in the coming days and weeks.

“Earlier this week we were able to lift the restrictions as weather conditions stabilized, but looking ahead we need to reinstate them on the same highways as before, plus now on SH-53 from the Washington State Line to US-95,” Operations Engineer Ryan Hawkins said. “On two-lane highways like SH-53, commuters will need to plan extra time to get to their destinations and expect to be slowed down by commercial vehicles respecting the restrictions.”

Learn more about why these restrictions are important by watching this video.

Restrictions on state highways are noted on 511.idaho.gov or on the app, which was just updated last week, in the trucker mode. They apply to trucks that have a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or more. On state highways, vehicles of this size are required to reduce their speeds to 30 mph and weigh no more than 14,000 pounds per axle. On U.S. highways, they still must reduce their speed to 30 mph but can weigh more in accordance with legally permitted loads. Breakup restrictions are not applied on interstates.

While restrictions have the potential to cause significant congestion on highways with a mix of commercial and commuter traffic, they are a necessary preventative measure that ultimately reduces impacts and costs to drivers and citizens in the long term.

As temperatures increase, the frozen base underneath the road thaws and becomes saturated with water, which creates a weaker section below the pavement that can lead to potholes and cracks. Heavy loads can cause rapid deterioration of pavement in these conditions.

Damage may result in months of additional repairs in the summer, diverting maintenance dollars from being invested into other routes.

These restrictions are only in place as long as necessary and save taxpayer dollars from being spent on damage that could have been prevented.

Dec. 29 at 3:30 p.m.

I-90 is back open.

Dec. 29 at 10 a.m.

Westbound I-90 is closed at milepost 4 west of the Spokane Street Interchange due to an incident. The Idaho Transportation Department is setting up a detour to route drivers around the incident via State Highway 41 and State Highway 53.

The detour is expected to be in place for a significant amount of time.

Drivers are advised to seek alternate routes and to check 511.idaho.gov for updates.

U.S. Highway 12 east of Kooskia is now open. No avalanches reached the highway during the closure.

The gates at Fish Creek (milepost 126) and Saddle Camp Road (milepost 139) closed Monday afternoon. Avalanche specialists with ITD were on site today to help local maintenance crews assess conditions and check the closure.

“The risk is no longer considerable and nothing came down, so we can safely reopen the highway,” Operations Engineer Jared Hopkins said.

Monday, Dec. 26

Several miles of U.S. Highway 12 east of Kooskia will close today at 3 p.m. PT due to considerable avalanche hazard. It is unknown when the road will reopen.

The gates at Fish Creek (milepost 126) and Saddle Camp Road (milepost 139) will close, and ITD crews are working with the U.S. Forest Service to notify any recreationists or drivers within the corridor of the impending closure.

Avalanche specialists with ITD will be on site to help local maintenance crews reassess conditions and reopen the highway. Another release will be sent once a determination to open the road is made.

“The rapid upswing in temperatures in such a short time is concerning,” Operations Engineer Jared Hopkins said. “We will keep the road closed until it is safe to reopen. In the meantime, this will mean significant delays for holiday travelers between Idaho and Montana.”

The last avalanche to reach the highway was in January. A major storm triggered an avalanche and dropped trees, closing US-12 for roughly four days.

Download a photo of road signage from last year.

Drivers should use 511.idaho.gov to stay updated on road conditions.

Earlier today State Highway 3 north of St. Maries reopened with wider, safe shoulders. Traffic had been detoured to Goosehaven Road since work began in April.  

Construction widened the highway 11 feet to the east, making room for 11-foot travel lanes and 3-foot shoulders. Guardrail was also added along the east side.

“The people that drive on this road every day had to drive on a really narrow road with no shoulders,” said Phil Lampert, Benewah County Commissioner. “This project makes it safer for everyone in the community and those who visit.”

Projects previously proposed to widen the highway had stalled due to environmental challenges and funding restraints.

“When we sat down with county commissioners three years ago, we heard that the desire for this project had only grown over the years,” said Bill Moad, the Idaho Transportation Board Chair. “After that meeting, we decided to use some of our own state funding to get design started.”

With new funding allocated by the board, design began in April 2020. Typically projects are developed through a seven-year process, but with local stakeholders willing to provide a detour for highway traffic, the project was expedited.

“That was a game changer,” said Jim Thompson, the board member for North Idaho. “There was no way to make these changes and accommodate traffic. Offering a detour showed how invested they were in the project, so we prioritized it.”

The three-mile section of highway cuts through wetlands, complicating any expansion effort. Traditionally, highways are expanded by importing embankment material and building the base outwards, but SH-3 was built on soft soils. Extra weight would collapse the soft soils and cause settlement problems for the highway; expanding outwards would also affect nearby wetlands that would trigger mitigation processes with other agencies. To get the safety improvements built sooner, the team wanted to find a way to avoid enlarging the highway past state property.

“We looked at a few options and using geofoam for the fill inside a wall system gave us an economical, lightweight solution,” said Erica Aamodt, ITD project manager for construction. “Since it can be stacked in blocks on top of each other, the foam would allow for a wider roadway without having to go outside of state-owned land.”

While geofoam has been used for other ITD projects—namely for the Topaz Bridge on U.S. Highway 30 near McCammon—this project uses more of it and over a curving length of three miles.  The project was bid for $12.7 million, and work began in April, with contractor Knife River planning to build the project in one season—rather than two—thanks to the availability of a detour.

“Partnership is what ultimately made this project happen,” Aamodt said. “We knew this project would be tough to deliver and inconvenient for drivers and residents with the detour, but we all came together because we knew we could get it done in one season and it’d be worth it.”

Jack Buell, owner of Buell Trucking and a former county commissioner, has long advocated for the project and remembers taking Governor John Evans for a ride on the highway to convince him it needed to be widened.

“The best part is that the State of Idaho decided to fix it, and they fixed it,” Buell said.