Highway Project To Start In 4 Weeks

Work will begin soon to straighten one of the most precarious stretches of U.S. Highway 95.

The North Hill project just outside Bonners Ferry should start in four to six weeks, a spokeswoman for the Idaho department of Transportation said Wednesday.

The project involves two miles of pavement, Barbara Babic said.

“It’s not all that long but it’s very complicated … It’s a major reconstruction and realignment.”

Contract bids were opened Monday in Boise.

The apparent low bid, at $10.6 million, was made by S.A. Gonzalez of Newman Lake, Wash.

The work should be completed by the end of the 1999 construction season, Babic said.

There will be travel delays.

The stretch of highway on the hill is infamous for its curves.

It plunges toward the bridge that crosses the Kootenai River, and is known locally as “Pork Chop Hill” for the number of Canadian stock trucks that have overturned on their descent.