Post Falls options whittled down

Three of seven options to improve transportation in Post Falls were tentatively eliminated Tuesday night, after a presentation by the Idaho Transportation Department to several city government groups.

The meeting was part of an effort by the Transportation Department to determine which of the options the community would prefer.

Those plans were rejected by city officials because they wouldn’t be as effective at improving traffic in the Post Falls Interstate 90 corridor from Spokane Street to State Highway 41, improving cross-freeway access to the north and south and making it easier to get to Post Falls from the freeway.

Officials said those considerations are particularly important because the area is growing rapidly.

The remaining plans have some common features. They aim to relieve the congestion at the Highway 41 intersection with I-90 and Seltice Way. One would expand Highway 41 from its current four lanes to six lanes and the other would alter the I-90 interchange at Highway 41 to improve the flow of traffic.

The remaining options would create auxiliary lanes for entering and exiting traffic on I-90.

To address the need for a north-south link across the freeway, the plans include either an interchange or a crossing at Greensferry Road.

The Idaho Transportation Department will get an official recommendation from the Post Falls City Council on which of the options should be studied in further detail for possible implementation. The department also wants to hear from the chamber of commerce, the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization and citizens.

Tuesday’s presentation showed the effectiveness of each plan. It looked at how each would affect safety; travel times; and environmental concerns, such as dividing a community or impacting threatened species. Cost is not being considered at this point.

Those factors will be studied further and the findings used to eliminate more of the plans, until the best option is left.

Whatever plan is chosen would go into effect in the next five years, and last for 20 years. That is why community involvement is so important, said Barbara Babic, spokeswoman for the Transportation Department. “Everybody has a lot of stake in this,” Babic said, citing businesses, residents, local government and the highway district.

Mel Palmer doesn’t know that any one plan will be attractive for all those groups. She serves on the urban renewal agency, which will be interested in plans that give access to the growing downtown district.

“But,” Palmer said, “we’ve got to serve Post Falls as best we can.”