Due to warmer than average temperatures, construction of the Garwood Road overpass over US-95 is scheduled to begin Tuesday rather than later in the spring as part of a three-year project to improve safety north of Coeur d’Alene.
Work this season will include removing the existing signal, building an overpass and connecting the new overpass to the frontage road to the west. This is the final phase of improvements to this section of US-95, with construction expected to wrap up by fall 2021.
Traffic on Garwood Road will be detoured south to access US-95 at the new interchange at Idaho Highway 53 via the Old Highway 95 and Pope Road frontage roads, and US-95 traffic will no longer be able to directly access Garwood Road during and after construction. Bicyclists and pedestrians using the path to the east of US-95 will be detoured through the construction zone via Pope Road throughout construction.
Next week only, US-95 motorists may experience short delays for the removal of the traffic signal.
Work in the corridor began in July 2019, and since then, crews have installed a temporary signal at ID-53 and Ramsey Road, widened and realigned ID-53 and replaced the bridge over the railroad. Government Way, signed as Pope Road, was extended north of
ID-53 to serve as a frontage road. The new interchange at US-95 and Idaho Highway 53 opened in November 2020 and is the first of its kind in North Idaho. Traffic movements in this Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI) are now centralized into one signal to improve efficiency.
When all construction is complete, US-95 will be safer and more efficient with new frontage roads, a new interchange, a new overpass, and a greater speed limit of 70 mph north of Boekel Road. With the two signals removed from US-95, the last signal heading north from Coeur d’Alene to Sandpoint will be at Lancaster Road.
Visit itdprojects.org/us95id53 to learn more and sign up for email updates.