Road project may close alleys

BONNERS FERRY — A public hearing was held on Aug. 5 for Boundary County residents to bring concerns to ITD representatives about the South Hill Project.

Around 40 people attended with the majority being business and property owners. Based on public sentiment, ITD will make a choice on which alternative to select and proceed with the final design.

"We already have a feel about how people feel about the project," said Ben Ward, project manger and engineer.

Alternative Two, while leading in popularity, is more expensive, with $5.4 million budgeted for the Stage 1 section, and $5 million being spent for construction. If anything ends up over budget, something will have to be cut. Money for the project comes from the cigarette tax. It goes to the transportation department tagged to be used as a safety project.

Ward hopes that the public hearing will clear up some controversy regarding right of ways, street accesses, and alleys.

The largestissue surrounds the south Denver street highway access. Closing all the alleys along Highway 95 has also elicited some response.

In the original design, ITD recommended closing the access, but the response to this decision has not been popular. A second solution has been also presented.

The first option has south Denver Street closed with the two accesses from Highway 95 into Far North, NIC, and Mountain Springs Church parking lot open. South Denver Street would be paved over allowing access to Mr. Suds car wash and Misty Mountain Espresso.

The second option keeps south Denver Street open. However, the access closest to Denver Street connecting Highway 95 to the parking lot of Mountain Springs church will be closed, leaving the only access open from Highway 95 to the parking lot the one by the Far North Deli. An access into the parking lot will also be available on the left hand side of south Denver Street.

There have been disagreements on both designs. Some of the residents in the Denver street area want the street left open. However, other people have brought up the issue of a traffic backup from exiting the parking lot around Far North and the Mountain Springs church. Having only one Highway 95 access out of that parking lot could cause problems.

During a council meeting held on July 21, city council members discussed the Denver Street issue and the problems with alleyways.

Ken Blockhan encouraged the council to close south Denver street, making it a commercial driven and changing the right of way of way to a utility easement. He believed this would give the adjacent parcels adjoining the street more room to build on. He also thought there could be traffic problems and backups from traffic trying to get on and off Denver Street into business lots.

ITD is looking at reducing the number of accesses off the highway, which is why they closed off all alleys. Ward brought up issue of left turning lane problem if the access and Denver Street are both left open.

However, most city council members disagreed and voted to keep south Denver street open, along with all alley accesses open.

Mayor Anderson decided to send a letter to ITD with the city's requests although there is no guarantee their demands will be met.

"We are adamant about the Denver Street access," said Dave Anderson, "We will pursue it to every degree we can."

Meanwhile, a solution has been found for the crossing issue. The raised island crossing will be put between Madison and Monroe streets as a mid-block crossing. In this case, if the alleyways are, in the end, not shut down between Madison and Monroe, pedestrian crossings will be slightly moved out of the way of the alleys. Flashing lights will be installed. There will be no stop signs, pedestrians and drivers will have to be paying attention. A protected pedestrian refuge island will help pedestrians get across four lanes of traffic.

"As far as the flashing lights, they are trial and error. We'll see if it's effective enough" said Dan Budd, lead designer, "But it's better than what's there." According to Budd, the majority of public comment has been positive.

"A few people have said we should leave it alone," said Budd, "But for the most part, the road needs improvement."

Terry Troutman, another designer on the project, has been busy working with utility companies.

"So far, things have been working smoothly," said Troutman.

After the design is complete, it needs to be environmentally approved before it is presented to the federal government.

Charlie While, an environmental planner, will be the one in charge of approving. For approval, the design has to receive cultural clearance.

We have to make sure there are no historical properties or culturally significant properties to the tribe," said While.

The next step for ITD needs to deal with are property owner contracts. There's been a little difficulty with businesses next to the highway.

We'll have to sit down with each business individually to find best solution," said Troutman, "Each access is going to have its own little issues."

Don Davis, ITD senior transportation planner for District One, is the one who started the entire project.

District One's final plan is to have a four lane highway from Latah County to Canada; about a 160 mile stretch.

Davis had consultants look at Bonners Ferry after remembering the improvements done back in 2003 around Super 1.

The state of Idaho had pledged to continue repairs in Bonners Ferry but it had never happened.The consultants looked at what road projects had been accomplished in the past to see how they were performing. District 1 then decided to put a project into the program for Bonners Ferry.

"That's where alternative 2 came from," said Davis, "People liked the change. They wanted more sidewalks and wider lanes."

Meetings will continue to be held between ITD and the city council as far as design.

Boundary County residents have until the end of August to mail in their testimony. Forms are available at City Hall. For more information, go to itd.idaho.gov.