U.S. 95 Won’T Get Fix From Legislators Focus Turns To Protecting Scheduled Projects

State lawmakers are getting ready to wrap up their session without doing anything to improve Idaho’s only north-south route.

The only bill related to U.S Highway 95 this year died in a House committee. But North Idaho lawmakers say the fight to improve the deadly route is continuing in other ways.

“It’s been a behind-the-scenes battle this year,” said Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, who had considered introducing legislation to upgrade Highway 95 but decided against it. Riggs said the big job for legislators now is to make sure the funding that’s already been targeted for the route stays in place.

“I have spent a lot of time on this issue for the past two years, but this year is different,” Riggs said. “Several major Highway 95 projects have appeared on the Idaho Transportation Department’s five-year calendar.”

Riggs said there is $140 million worth of Highway 95 projects on the calendar that weren’t scheduled two years ago. “And,” he said, “these are major projects on the worst parts of the road.”

Last year, 35 people died in crashes along the mostly two-lane stretch considered Idaho’s most-dangerous roadway. Despite public outcry for more lanes and other improvements, efforts to get money have foundered in the Legislature for years.

Before the session began, some lawmakers pledged to make highway safety a priority.

But because projects are in the works, most legislators are saying their job has changed.

“What I’ve been doing is championing projects to the (transportation) board,” Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, said. “That’s where things are going to get done, not here.

“We’ve got to keep a close eye on those projects and keep in contact with ITD,” he added.

Highway 95 improvements figure to be a major campaign issue as the May 23 primary election nears.

“I was disappointed that the issue didn’t get more attention this year,” said longtime Highway 95 advocate John Goedde of Coeur d’Alene. Goedde, a Republican who is running for the state Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden, has worked with the Coeur d’Alene Area Chamber of Commerce and lawmakers on the issue for years.

But Goedde, too, said things have changed, thanks to increased federal funding for transportation projects in Idaho.

Crow was the only lawmaker to bring legislation on Highway 95 this year.

His bill, he said, “would require the department to print a list of the state’s 10 worst sections of highway every year according to serious injuries and fatalities. It would also include recommended solutions that wouldn’t have to be making it a four-lane superhighway, it could be widening the shoulders or lowering speed limits.”

Crow got his bill through the Senate, but it died in the House Transportation Committee, where members said he had tried to insert his change into the wrong section of state law.

“I didn’t go into this with any delusions that suddenly people would say `Ohmigod, let’s fix Highway 95,”’ Crow said. “I think it would have brought other projects to people’s attention, too.”

Far from boosting Highway 95 improvements, lawmakers actually considered gutting funding for upgrades to help pay off a legal settlement with the American Trucking Association over Idaho’s illegal trucking tax.

“It was dicey there for a few moments when we talked about the ATA settlement,” Crow said. “But it didn’t happen, and it was not an option. That would have affected a lot of highway projects.”

Protecting the funding is exactly where Riggs says North Idaho legislators should focus now.

“It’s not at all accurate to say that we’re not working on this issue - it’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work now,” Riggs said. “I don’t care any less about Highway 95. I’m just comfortable with the direction that the projects are going. Now it’s time to be patient, watch and make sure that the projects stay on the calendar.”