Highway 95 bridge work in Bonners begins

BONNERS FERRY — Boundary county residents can expect slower travel times on Highway 95 as work begins on the bridges through Bonners Ferry.

Crews will begin work June 16 on the northbound lane of both the Arizona street bridge on the South Hill of Bonners Ferry and the Kootenai River bridge, including the short section over the Union Pacific tracks, according to Scotty D. Fellom, ITD administrative manager for District 1.

Braun-Jensen Inc., of Payette, is the contractor on this $2.1 million project and expects to finish repairs around Sept. 2.

While workers attend to the northbound lane, Ash street will be closed and traffic will be detoured to Arizona Street, then Main and Kootenai streets. All other accesses will remain open, Fellom said.

Oversized loads will be limited to a 10-foot width during repairs and lengths will be limited to normal, non-permitted legal lengths.

“This is one of those things we have to do,” said ITD resident engineer John Perfect. “It’s inconvenient to the traveling public, but once it’s done, we won’t have to come back for a long time.”

Workers will use hydrodemolition, high pressure water jets to scour away weak concrete down to a competent layer of concrete, says Perfect. The Arizona Street bridge will be resurfaced and the bridge deck will be sealed with a silica fume concrete. Guardrail and the steel girders underneath the bridge also will be repainted.

At the same time, the Kootenai River Bridge will receive an epoxy overlay to provide an impermeable seal and extend the life of the bridge deck. The isomeric resin used to seal the deck is very hard and resistant to the chlorides used for de-icing, says Perfect. Workers will remove more material around bridge joints to eliminate bumps on either side of the bridge.

After the work is completed on the northbound lanes of both bridges, traffic will be shifted to the finished lanes, also in a two-lane configuration. This will be the beginning of the second stage, during which the construction process will be repeated on the southbound lanes.

During part of stage two, Main Street will close and traffic will be detoured to Kootenai Street, and Chinook Street will detour to Comanche Street.

At this time, Ash Street will reopen.

At the end of each stage, a limited amount of paving will be done on either side of both bridges. Asphalt paving is typical on bridge rehabilitation projects to provide a smoother transition to the new bridge surface, said Fellom. Similar projects are being performed throughout the Idaho to extend the life of our bridges.

Repairs need to be done to bridges approximately every 25 years, says Perfect. Bridges can last more than 75 years and go through three to four repair cycles before they need replacement. The Arizona Street bridge was built in 1972 and The Kootenai River bridge has connected both sides of Bonners Ferry since 1984.