Re: Highway 95: Moscow to Lewiston

["JS M" <jbiggs50@hotmail.com>]

I interviewed for a job with Idaho Department of Transportation last month.  
I asked the engineer at IDOT Dist. 2 what he felt was his biggest challenge 
over the next year.  He said he felt the biggest project in the district was 
the widening of the Highway from the top of Lewiston grade to Moscow.  They 
feel very lucky to have bagged some money for this, as southern Idaho tends 
to suck up all the road money in the state.  He pointed out that the highway 
is the only north-south route in the state and still it's a two-lane road.  
They are in the design and environmental assessment stage right now.  
They're plan is to widen the road to Couer D'Alene, but this is still years 
away.  Re: gravel pits; that's a right-to-farm issue in Washington.  Every 
farmer has the right to quarry; I guess they're farming rocks.  Don't know 
about Idaho.
jm

>From: Kenton Bird <kbird@uidaho.edu>
>
>Dear visionaries,
>I am pleased to rejoin this list after three years in Colorado.  I'm
>slowly getting up to speed on issues, so please forgive me if this topic
>has been previously discussed.
>
>I have seen several newspaper ads that the Idaho Department of
>Transportation is looking for suppliers of crushed rock in the
>"corridor" from the top of the Lewiston Hill to Moscow, for the purpose
>of constructing a four-lane highway.
>
>Can anyone tell me:
>1. Whether this widening of the highway is on the DOT's construction
>calendar, and if so, for what year?
>2. How this project is/was justified (traffic counts, accident rates,
>etc.)?
>3. How it will be funded (state/federal mix)?
>4. Whether this is the best possible use of our state's limited
>transportation dollars?  (For example, would a bypass around Moscow
>provide greater safety and efficiency benefits to long-haul truckers and
>others traveling from Coeur d'Alene to Lewiston than four lanes in the
>rural 20-mile stretch south of Moscow?)
>5. Whether the Moscow City Council or Latah County Commissioners has
>endorsed this project?
>6. What safeguards Idaho has to ensure that the Moscow-Lewiston corridor
>isn't forever scarred by gravel pits the way the Moscow-Pullman corridor
>has?
>
>I drove to Lewiston on Tuesday and didn't see enough traffic to justify
>four lanes, especially since nearly every hill has a passing lane.  But
>perhaps I'm missing something.
>
>--Kenton Bird
>
>

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