Post Falls funding Greensferry study

BOISE – Post Falls got the Idaho Transportation Board’s blessing Wednesday to spend $350,000 in city funds to try to keep plans moving for a future freeway interchange at Greensferry Road.

“We came down and told them we’re going to bring them a special proposition – we’re going to bring the money and just ask for their blessing,” Mayor Clay Larkin said shortly after the board’s action. “We got a lot of smiles on that.”

A new Greensferry interchange isn’t on the state’s five-year State Highway Improvement Plan, or STIP. In fact, state plans show it likely wouldn’t be built for another 11 to 16 years, Larkin said. But the city’s hoping that by kicking in city money, it can move the start date up.

The city funds – mostly from annexation fees, but also including a small slice of the savings account for a new City Hall – will go to complete an Environmental Impact Statement that’s needed to move the project to its first regulatory approval stage, called a record of decision.

Transportation Board member Bruce Sweeney, of Lewiston, warned that Environmental Impact Statements have a “shelf life.” That means if the project doesn’t move along as quickly as the city hopes, the environmental study could expire and have to be redone.

“We totally understand that,” Larkin said. “We expected it, anticipated it and accept it.”

The Transportation Board voted unanimously in favor of a resolution allowing Post Falls to go ahead with the environmental study. The City Council approved the plan last week.

The interchange is the centerpiece of a project called Access 90 that has looked at transportation issues throughout the central Post Falls I-90 corridor. It’s separate from another proposed interchange that has been discussed to the west to serve the proposed site of a new Cabela’s sporting goods store.

Larkin said an engineering firm, CH2M Hill, already had been hired to conduct the environmental study for the Greensferry interchange when state plans changed this year and the funding disappeared.

“We were told, ‘You’re out of luck – everything’s shut down,’ ” he said.

The mayor said the interchange is key to relieving heavy traffic on Highway 41 on the east side of Greensferry Road south of Rathdrum. The route already is highly congested, he said.

“At peak hours during the day it’s really bad. So we need to get traffic off of 41 and onto a better-designed road,” he said.

The proposed new interchange is estimated to cost $12 million to $15 million, Larkin said.

“We just want to take it one step at a time – get the record of decision, and then we’ll see where we are,” he said. “This will position us for getting on the STIP and being ready when the time comes.”