Highway 95 intersections may be closed
Idaho Transportation Board members approved a two-year study of U.S. Highway 95 access between Appleway Avenue in Coeur d’Alene and Wyoming Avenue in Hayden due to concerns of traffic congestion and accidents on that stretch of road.
In a unanimous decision Friday, board members also asked the cities and the Idaho Transportation Department to consider whether several of the highway’s intersections in north Hayden should be closed to cross traffic due to the high number of accidents, including several fatalities in recent years.
Scott Stokes, the Idaho Transportation Department District 1 engineer, reported to board members that 674 car crashes have occurred in the past five years on Highway 95 between Appleway and Wyoming. It was a number that concerned some members of the board so much that one, John Combo, made a motion to close gaps in the highway median that now allow drivers to turn left and cross the highway at several no-signal intersections. The changes would take place within two years and with no traffic study, according to his motion.
But members of the Coeur d’Alene and Hayden city councils and concerned business owners spoke against immediate action, calling for a group effort to figure out how to best handle the situation.
Coeur d’Alene City Councilwoman Dixie Reed said some of the concerns about growing traffic congestion on Highway 95 may be helped if the state were to build the Huetter Corridor, a proposal to bypass Highway 95 with a freeway-like arterial to the west that would link with the present highway north of Hayden. The abandoned stretch of Highway 95 would become a community corridor, hopefully with much less traffic.
Reed and others said the bypass is necessary because Highway 95 already has grown into a slower, more clogged route than its original design as a 70 mph road. “It was changed and we can’t put it back to what it was before,” she said.
North Idaho residents have been up in arms recently over changes to the Idaho Transportation Department’s roster of planned highway improvements. The agency has put several notable projects in the area on the back burner, where they may stay for 15 years or more. Residents packed the meeting room in the District 1 office to oppose those recent decisions.
Much of the change came in a new long-range capital improvement plan known as “Horizons in Transportation.” Reed and others believe that program shifts state dollars away from North Idaho. “Closing the medians gives us a little bit of heartburn – gives us a lot of heartburn,” Reed said.
Combo’s proposal to close certain intersections would steer more traffic to the Prairie, Hayden and Honeysuckle avenue intersections in Hayden, making them even more congested, she added.
“We have new horizons,” Reed said, alluding to the state’s long-range plan, “and we’re not on your horizon yet.”
Combo said the Huetter Corridor is a bit of a pipe dream and should not be used to defend keeping the medians open in north Hayden.
“Huetter is not going to help at all,” he said. “It’s out there somewhere without funding.”
Steve Ridenour, a land and business owner in Hayden who works with North River Development, said that the medians should not be closed too hastily because of “fear or in an emotional knee jerk.”
“Let’s take a step back, let’s study this together,” he said. “We’re not looking for a free ride and we don’t want a situation that would endanger the lives and health of the community.”