Widened U.S. 95 slated to debut today

PONDERAY — Motorists will finally see the light at U.S. Highway 95 and Bonner Mall Way today.

The long-awaited traffic signal is scheduled to be activated as work wraps up for the season on the highway widening project.

“They’re ready to be turned on,” Ken Sorensen, the Idaho Transportation Department’s resident engineer, said of new signals at Bonner Mall Way and Kootenai Cutoff Road.

Although work on the U.S. 95 root canal will resume next spring, motorists will get a taste of the highway’s new configuration starting today, according to ITD.

The new configuration is a divided stretch of highway with two southbound lanes and two northbound lanes. The speed limit will remain at 35 mph while the $12.7 million project is under construction, but it will be raised to 45 mph when the work is done.

Apollo Construction is the project’s lead contractor.

Motorists will detect a distinct lack of opportunities for left-hand turns, a traffic maneuver that mostly favored the foolhardy or the extremely patient under the old highway configuration.

Those entering the highway will only be able to make right turns unless they are at one of the signaled intersections at Kootenai Cutoff Road or Bonner Mall Way.

To mitigate the reduced ability to make left turns, ITD installed Texas turnarounds at five locations. The turnarounds enable motorists to reach a particular destination on the other side of the highway by overshooting it slightly, making a U-turn and doubling back.

U-turns will be allowed at the turnarounds and at the signaled intersections.

The turnarounds were utilized because ITD was unable to secure the necessary right of way to install frontage roads.

Northbound motorists will encounter the turnarounds north of the Rokstad Ford dealership, north of the Taco Bell restaurant and north of the Holiday Inn Express motel. Southbound motorists will find two of them — one at Tibbett’s Lane and one at Triangle Drive.

There’s also the matter of Fontaine Drive, the stretch of road that parallels the east side of the highway. It will remain open this year, but the north end of it will ultimately be cauterized into a cul de sac just south of the McDonald’s restaurant.

Left turns onto Fontaine from Bonner Mall Way will be prohibited because of its close proximity to the U.S. 95 intersection. Left turns onto Bonner Mall Way from Fontaine are also verboten, although motorists can make a right onto Bonner Mall Way from Fontaine.

A new connector road will be constructed next year between Papa Murphy’s and the Laughing Dog Brewery to improve highway access to and from Fontaine Drive.

The bicycle and pedestrian trail from Popsicle Bridge will be opened, although it will remain in an unimproved state until the project’s done. The path will parallel the west side of the highway south of Bonner Mall Way and cross over to the east side north of the intersection.