Idaho Drivers Getting In A Rut Hot Summer, Studded Tires Left Lasting Impression On I-90

Cruising along Interstate 90, the car jerks to the right, then slips to the left.

Something must be wrong with the steering or maybe the alignment.

No, it’s just the ruts in the road.

“They’re getting so you don’t have to steer your car anymore,” said Laura Claffey with a laugh. She drives from Coeur d’Alene to Post Falls daily along I-90.

Last summer’s extremely warm weather, increasing traffic and studded tires in the winter have caused ever-deeper grooves on North Idaho’s roads and highway.

The ruts - legendary in Spokane - trail along the eastbound lanes of I-90 near Post Falls and U.S. Highway 95 north of Bonners Ferry, among other places.

“It’s dangerous on days when it’s slick,” said Brian Watkins, a Kootenai County deputy prosecutor who commutes to work from Spokane. “When you make your lane change, if you get caught in the rut it can make you lose control of your car.”

Scorching temperatures last summer warmed the asphalt and concrete roadways into an especially soft and malleable state, said Bob Ewing, maintenance engineer for the Idaho Department of Transportation.

As cars and heavy trucks traveled over the soft surface, they left behind their impression.

And North Idaho’s highways are bearing a heavier traffic load, Ewing said.

The average daily traffic on I-90 at the Idaho/Washington border was 22,510 vehicles in 1990. That number had jumped to 30,000 vehicles by 1993, according to statistics from the Department of Transportation.

Don Johnson, assistant maintenance engineer, said heavy trucks are causing most of the “canoe race tracks.”

And studded tires haven’t helped matters. “The friction caused by them, it just kind of eats the (the road surface) away,” he said.

The damage is repairable - for a fee of course. Depending on what money is available, Ewing said the Department of Transportation will consider making rut repairs.

The roads can be ground down and the grooves filled in, he said.

Until then, drivers are learning how to live with the ruts.

“I just try not to drive in them,” said Bill Clark, who lives in the Spokane Valley and works in Coeur d’Alene. “I usually drive off to the side of them.”