Changes Being Made At Dangerous Intersection

The city has begun routing traffic around a dangerous intersection where a teenage girl was killed last spring.

Tuesday, city workers blocked southbound traffic from Lincoln Way onto Northwest Boulevard - the first step in a monthlong project to eliminate such turns permanently.

Lincoln Way is steep and awkwardly angled on both sides of the boulevard.

The road work comes as a relief to family and friends of 18-year-old Jennifer Stokes. The North Idaho College student died March 26, three days after her car hit a delivery van as she was pulling onto the boulevard from Lincoln Way.

“It’s about time,” said Jill Murphy, whose daughter had played soccer with Stokes. “We’re thankful, but we’re wondering why it took so long.”

The road work comes 10 years after a city traffic safety committee first recommended the change to the dangerous intersection.

In May, the City Council agreed to close the dangerous corner after having rejected such a move twice before - once in 1985 and again in 1992. Fort Ground residents previously had complained about losing access to the boulevard, but they did not complain this year.

City Engineer Gordon Dobler said it has taken three months to design the changes, line up contractors, put the contract out to bid and communicate with utility supervisors to begin construction.

“All that takes time,” he said.

Forty-seven accidents have occurred at the intersection in four years. Seven accidents - four resulting in injuries - have occurred there since the May 2 council decision.

Street crews will begin putting in new curbs and gutters next week and will repave the intersection in coming weeks. Traffic along Northwest Boulevard will be reduced to one lane much of the rest of this month.

When complete, the $35,000 project will make Lincoln Way, south of the boulevard, one way running south into the Fort Ground neighborhood.

North of the boulevard, northbound traffic from Milwaukee Avenue will enter Lincoln Way through D Street and Idaho Avenue.

Work is expected to be finished Sept. 15, Dobler said.

, DataTimes