Repairs Winding Down U.S. 95 Project Nearly Done After Two Years, Mudslide
Another kink has come out of U.S. Highway 95.
But straightening a winding, steep stretch of highway north of Bonners Ferry came with a hefty price tag.
What was supposed to be a $14 million realignment turned into a $20 million job after heavy rains during construction turned the steep hillside into goo and a landslide tore out the existing highway.
The October 1998 slide split Boundary County in half for three weeks, kept kids out of school for two weeks and cost businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But transportation officials and community leaders were all smiles Thursday as they cut the ribbon to dedicate the North Hill project, work on which began in the summer of 1998.
“This has been a difficult project for everyone,” said Dwight Bower, director of the state Department of Transportation, standing on fresh asphalt with the Kootenai Valley spread beneath him.
“I know there were times when you didn’t get enough sleep and your cell-phone batteries ran out because you didn’t get a chance to recharge them,” he told Scott Stokes, the district engineer who shouldered the responsibility when the North Hill landslide occurred.
The county’s emergency services received high praise for its role in managing the disaster, as did the highway contractor, Kiewit Pacific.
“They were remarkable,” Stokes said. “We’re close to a couple of months ahead of schedule than the original plan.”
As officials spoke, bulldozers tore at a hillside down the highway. That, said David Suhr of Kiewit, is the last major obstacle to completion of the new stretch of highway.
The bulldozers are making room for four lanes on the lower end of the project.
Elsewhere, about all that’s left are concrete barrier guardrails, line painting and planting and landscaping.
All of that should be wrapped up in mid-September, Suhr said.
Then, traffic will flow smoothly on four generous lanes of asphalt down a relatively gentle grade to town. It will be a big change from the days when a car wreck would close the county’s only north-south truck route for hours at a time.
For 20 years, the people of Bonners Ferry and Boundary County have been lobbying to get the highway realigned, said Darrel Kerby, the city’s mayor.
“It can’t be overstated as to the significance of now having safe passage between the north part of the county to the south part,” Kerby said.
Pete Wilson, a retired attorney, worked with the Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce to lobby the state to improve the North Hill.
Bower praised Wilson’s perseverance Thursday.
“They decided to put on a full-court press to get this thing done,” Bower said. “I remember those presentations, and they were very forceful.”
Earlier Thursday, Wilson noted that the North Hill project was part of a series of highway improvements through Bonners Ferry, one of which was the replacement of the old bridge, which directed traffic right into downtown Bonners Ferry.
“That was a big fight,” Wilson recalled.
The North Hill project certainly had its frustrations.
“Once they had it on the schedule, and Boise needed the money for a four-lane highway downtown, and so Boise took the money,” Wilson said. “We were farther away from Boise than downtown Boise.”
Wilson joked his only concern now with the realigned highway is that the new breathtaking view of the valley will lure passers-by to stay.
The old highway will be closed to traffic, except for a short spur for utility maintenance. The county has plans to turn the old route into a bike and pedestrian path.
In the winter, joked Boundary County Commissioner Murreleen Skeen, it could be used as a luge run.
The timing of the highway dedication was designed to coincide with a tour of North Idaho by the Idaho Transportation Board. Chairman Chuck Winder said the project certainly isn’t the last for U.S. Highway 95.
“The board is committed to putting a lot of money into U.S. 95 from the Canadian border to the Oregon border,” he said Thursday. “It’s the highway that really needs the attention.”