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Re: Sandpoint, Idaho: There Goes the Neighborhood
Author: Dave Smith
Date: 12-19-2007 - 17:25
It's a shame. But ITD has been bullying this project for years, aka they've invested a lot in it and they're not going to change it for anyone.
Common sense tells us that the US 95 corridor from Coeur d'Alene to the border at Eastport should be of Interstate Highway status ASAP - heavy traffic, heavy truck traffic.....probably would be designated Interstate 11. That fact is what makes this Sand Creek bypass so absurd, because it does not fit into the specs of Interstate Highway parameters. The slough corridor is too narrow to fit a four lane divided controlled access freeway, and the approach from the north is going to be a slow-going boulevard with lots of stop lights and left hand turns, similar to what happened to US 95 between Coeur d'Alene and Hayden. And as we all know, now they are talking about building a new freeway between I-90 and Garwood due to the congestion and slow-going on the current highway! Hmmmmmm.....
Gee, shouldn't ITD have just made the current US 95 between CDA and Hayden a de facto freeway with interchanges when the thing was built three decades ago? Would've saved the taxpayers a whole lot of money. The same thing is going to happen in Sandpoint, albeit a lot sooner - they'll build the Sand Creek bypass, then 10 or so years later they'll decide that, yeah, they do need to build a de facto freeway west of Sandpoint.
Common sense tells us that the US 95 corridor from Coeur d'Alene to the border at Eastport should be of Interstate Highway status ASAP - heavy traffic, heavy truck traffic.....probably would be designated Interstate 11. That fact is what makes this Sand Creek bypass so absurd, because it does not fit into the specs of Interstate Highway parameters. The slough corridor is too narrow to fit a four lane divided controlled access freeway, and the approach from the north is going to be a slow-going boulevard with lots of stop lights and left hand turns, similar to what happened to US 95 between Coeur d'Alene and Hayden. And as we all know, now they are talking about building a new freeway between I-90 and Garwood due to the congestion and slow-going on the current highway! Hmmmmmm.....
Gee, shouldn't ITD have just made the current US 95 between CDA and Hayden a de facto freeway with interchanges when the thing was built three decades ago? Would've saved the taxpayers a whole lot of money. The same thing is going to happen in Sandpoint, albeit a lot sooner - they'll build the Sand Creek bypass, then 10 or so years later they'll decide that, yeah, they do need to build a de facto freeway west of Sandpoint.
