Stick a fork in the westside route plan

For some time we have been discussing a bypass for Sandpoint's traffic congestion. In my last leter (March 16) I demonstrated that the Westside route does 10 times the environmental damage, is far more expensive and far less aesthetic.

The comments I received to that letter were that “the Sand Creek route is obsolete” and the “westside route would have to be built later, anyway.” It is these two objections that I want to address.

Idaho Transportation Department's original Sand Creek plan called for a four-lane bypass. These four lanes were to be seperated under two railroads and on the two current bridges. It was political pressure that forced them to scale back to two lanes and call it a “byway.”

If the Sand Creek route is restored back to the original four lanes, it is no more obsolete than the proposed four lane westside route. Over the next 50 years the Sand Creek route will stay a bypass, without traffic signals, while the westside route will need them. Traffic signals will greatly reduce the efficiency of the westside route, making it obsolete sooner than Sand Creek. It is time to scrap the idea of a westside route which does 10 times the environmental damage, is 10 times as expensive and is no more efficient or lasting as a traffic congestion solution.

LLOYD WALLACE

Hope