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Picture of bridge at Little Hangman Creek. 

Update as of May 21: Contractors now anticipate starting at Little Hangman Creek on Wednesday, May 29 and possibly starting at Butcher Creek in July. 

Four bridges and three culverts from Grangeville to the Canadian border are scheduled for replacement over the next three years, beginning with Butcher Creek on Idaho Highway 13 near Grangeville.

Construction on Butcher Creek will start in late May and be completed around August, with the bridge reduced to one lane of alternating traffic.

Other structures scheduled for replacement this year include, in relative order, Little Hangman Creek on ID-60 near the Washington borer, Texas Creek on ID-11 near Weippe and Round Prairie Creek on US-95 near the Canadian border.

In 2020, ID-6 over Santa Creek near Michael Road, ID-3 over Cedar Creek near Clarkia and ID-57 over Kalispell Creek near Nordman will be reconstructed.

Each structure is expected to take two or three months with simultaneous work possible. In general, they will be reduced to one lane with alternating traffic controlled by flaggers or temporary signals.

All work is expected to be completed by spring 2021, with some work possible over the winter. T. La Riviere Equipment & Excavation, Inc. will replace the seven structures for $8.8 million.

Learn more by visiting itdprojects.org/d1d2bridges.

Work is ongoing to resurface 13 miles of US-95 north of the Time Zone Bridge. Construction began last week and is expected to wrap up in August.

The highway is reduced to one lane with alternating traffic controlled by flaggers. Drivers should expect up to 15-minute delays. Various pull outs on US-95 will be temporarily closed for a few hours at a time as the route is paved in the immediate area.

Contractors plan to work during weekdays, though some work at night and on the weekends may be necessary as construction continues.

During non-working hours and holidays, two lanes will be open. Learn more at itdprojects.org/us95goffto210.

Next week, contractors will start making improvements to US-95 in Moscow in advance of a large paving project this summer.

Beginning Monday, May 13, pedestrian facilities at Rodeo Drive and Pintail Lane will be brought up to current standards. Shoulder closures will be in place along with pedestrian and bicycle detours.

In early June, a section of road at the intersection of US-95 (South Washington Street) and East First Street will be resurfaced. Drivers can expect one lane open during the work. Pedestrian and bicycle detours will be in place as necessary.

As part of this project, Idaho Highway 66, from its intersection with US-95 to the Washington border, will be repaved in mid-June. Flaggers will be stationed at the intersection to guide traffic movements onto ID-66, which will be reduced to one lane.

In late June, contractors are scheduled to repave more than five miles between Rodeo Drive in Moscow and Four Mile Creek in Viola, including Moscow Mountain. During paving, US-95 will be reduced to one travel lane, with two lanes possible over the mountain.

Earlier work in May and July at Moscow Mountain will include installing a wall to help stabilize the hill, replacing the concrete guardrail on the west side and relocating a wildlife sensor. One lane will be closed for that work.

All work is expected to be completed by Poe Asphalt Paving, Inc. in late July for an estimated $2.3 million. Learn more at itdprojects.org/us95moscowtoviola.

This weekend, May 10-12, ITD operations crews will make changes to the right-turn lane into the east entrance of Aht’Wy Plaza to improve safety for turning drivers. These improvements will precede construction of the planned interchange.

Crews will sealcoat the turn lane on Friday to mask existing striping and will return over the weekend to sweep away any loose rocks. The turn lane is scheduled to be repainted on Monday, May 13. Drivers can expect the turn lane to be closed for a few hours each day while crews are on site.

The turn lane will be shifted to provide more separation from the through lanes of traffic, and the stop bar for exiting drivers will be moved closer to traffic to improve line of sight.

View a simple graphic of the planned change.

Modifications will prevent vehicles turning into the plaza from obscurring other vehicles passing through the area. A joint road safety audit with the Nez Perce Tribe in January determined that this blocking effect was a factor in recent fatal crashes.

To sign up for updates and learn more about coordinated safety efforts near the plaza, visit the project website at itdprojects.org/ahtwyinterchange.

Idaho Highway 97 is scheduled to be closed this week to allow construction of a pedestrian tunnel for Camp Easton north of Harrison. The closure is expected to begin Tuesday, May 7 and last no later than May 16.

Drivers are advised to use Burma Road as a detour while the 10-foot wide tunnel is being constructed at the current location of the camp’s crosswalk.

The tunnel and associated project features are funded by a $230,000 grant from the federal Transportation Alternative Program (TAP). East Side Highway District sponsored the application. The Boy Scouts of America Inland Northwest Council contributed an additional $45,000 as a match.

Per the grant application, an average of 220 campers must cross the highway multiple times each day during the summer to access both sides of the 383-acre camp.

TAP grants can be used for a range of projects from on- and off-road pedestrian and bicycle facilities to safe routes to school education projects. This program is authorized to fund $850 million in improvements across the nation this year.

Repairs to the Atlas and Huetter bridges on Interstate 90 are halfway complete, and by this weekend crews will start working on the remaining halves of the structures, requiring a change in the construction zone.

Once the next phase of work starts, westbound lanes will be divided before the bridge over Atlas Road, with one lane remaining in place for access to the rest area near Huetter and the other lane crossing the median to join eastbound traffic over the bridges. All drivers heading to the rest area will need to take the right lane. Both lanes will have access to the Idaho Highway 41 exit.

View a graphic showing traffic impacts.

Other work in the construction zone this week will apply striping and smooth the surface on I-90 from Northwest Boulevard to Ninth Street, requiring a single-lane closure at night. Crews will work on the eastbound lanes before finishing westbound lanes, with work anticipated to last four nights and planned to start tomorrow (May 1).

Bridge repairs expected to be completed by early July and will be followed by another project to reduce rutting from the Washington-Idaho border to the Northwest Boulevard exit. Resurfacing will last until September.

Information on the bridge maintenance project can be found at itdprojects.org/i90bridgespf, and information on the resurfacing project can be found at itdprojects.org/i90statelineresurfacing.

Boat check stations across the state are now open, including the one on Interstate 90 near Cedars, where inspectors found the greatest number of contaminated watercraft in 2018.

Primarily positioned near state borders, stations check for aquatic invasive species (AIS), such as zebra mussels, being transported between watersheds. Key to this effort is signage provided by the Idaho Transportation Department to advertise inspection opportunities and patrols by local law enforcement to ensure motorists remember to stop.

The stations are part of a larger effort by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) to prevent the spread of AIS.

“The spread of aquatic invasive species like the mussels would threaten the Idaho we know and love,” said Nic Zurfluh, a section manager for ISDA.

Invasive mussels are easily transported, and once attached to an area, can quickly take over and are hard to eradicate. Colonies clog pipes in water systems, threatening hydropower and irrigation for food, as well as municipal water supplies. When they take over a lake, it can quickly lose its recreational value.

“If quagga or zebra mussels were to infest Idaho’s waters, as they have done in other states, it could cost the state nearly $100 million annually in damage and lost revenue,” Zurfluh said.

Invasive mussels are thought to have been carried over by transoceanic shipping containers through ballast water in the late 1980s. They started in the Great Lakes, and since then, they have been transported down the Mississippi Basin and to the west.

Shortly after the invasive mussels were found in Arizona’s Lake Mead in 2007, Idaho began monitoring lakes and rivers.

“Now we’re seeing more overland transportation,” Zurfluh said.

The Columbia Basin is the remaining major watershed in the United States that has not been infested, inspiring a regional effort between Montana, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and even Canada to share data, outreach strategies and prevention efforts.

Fifty fouled watercraft—ranging from boats to kayaks to barges—were found across the state last year through 110,000 inspections, though none were carrying viable organisms. To date this year, 10 fouled boats have been found.

“The opportunity for prevention is alive and well,” Zurfluh said.

To protect Idaho’s waters, watercraft users can remember three simple rules: clean, dry and drain.

• CLEAN watercraft and equipment before leaving any waterbody.
• DRAIN water from all equipment.
• DRY all vessel compartments and lay equipment out to dry before using in a different body waterbody or watershed.

For those recreating in the Coeur d’Alene area, note that the Coeur d’Alene River and the St. Joe River are part of different watersheds, requiring extra care between trips. More information is available at: http://invasivespecies.idaho.gov/watercraft-inspection-stations.

Construction is expected to begin on Tuesday, April 30 on the Eastern Idaho Railroad crossing on Idaho Highway 25 south of Hunt at milepost 17.6.

Eastern Idaho Railroad crews will reconstruct the railroad crossing to improve safety and ease of travel for motorists in the area.

In order to complete this project, ID-25 will be closed from 7 a.m. April 30 until 6 p.m. May 1. Motorists will need to use routes along Interstate 84/US-93 or county roads during this timeframe.

Beginning next week, a project to repair 17 structures on US-95 from Plummer to Westmond will begin.

Repairs will include overlays and some demolition, although work and impacts will vary from bridge to bridge. Drivers can expect at least one lane open.

Prominent bridges include several structures near the ID-58 interchange, Bunco Road overpass and the Athol interchange. All work is expected to be completed after September.

Contractors are typically expected to be on site during weekdays. They will likely spend a few weeks at each bridge before moving on to the next, with some overlapping work possible.

Repairs to Bunco Road overpass near Silverwood will be done at night to minimize impacts to traffic. Those repairs are currently scheduled for July.

More information can be found online at itdprojects.org/us95bridges.