The flashing red and yellow lights were part of an Idaho Department of Transportation study that's underway to determine how best to reconfigure and improve the highway through Bonners Ferry.
"The widening through Bonners Ferry will require changes to the signal at Alderson Lane, so we are working with city officials to determine the appropriate traffic control application," said ITD engineer Ben Ward, who is working on the project design. "We recently gathered data at the intersection with the signal turned to flash mode — yellow for US 95 traffic and red for Alderson Lane, which is essentially how traffic would be controlled with a stop sign for traffic entering the highway from Alderson. This is also how the signal functions daily during peak afternoon traffic, so we (ITD and the City) wanted to gather data under that configuration. The data is being entered into traffic simulation software to help determine the best way to control traffic at that intersection."
Public information meetings and hearings were held on the project in 2015, when local residents got their first look at Stage 1 of the LaBrosse Hill Street to Madison Street Project, which encompasses the section from Alderson Lane to Madison Street, in a project that has since expanded.
Since the public meetings, ITD has added work to improve the pavement on the South Hill from Madison Street to the Kootenai River Bridge. That reconstruction work will include a new wider eight-foot sidewalk on the west side of the highway and a reduction from four lanes to two between Madison Street and Ash Street.
A fairly significant majority of the people who commented at the two public meetings favored the wide three-lane alternative (Alternative 2) as opposed to the narrow three-lane Alternative 1, and as that design more closely aligns to current highway standards, ITD has focused development efforts in that direction.
Alternative 2, which will require the acquisition of between 4 and 10 feet or right-of-way from most of the adjacent properties, is being designed to provide a constant 46-foot roadway width with six-foot shoulders, two 11-foot through lanes and a 12-foot two-way left turn lane. It will reduce number of approaches to the highway, closing the south Denver and Cody Street approaches as well as consolidate or relocate business approaches and address oversized business approaches.
The plan would close alley approaches between Van Buren and Madison Streets, add sidewalks and ADA ramps on both sides of US 95 for pedestrian travel along and across the corridor and address drainage along the corridor, and remove the only stop light in town, the traffic signal at the highway and Alderson Lane.
As the plans get more refined, ITD will hold additional informational meetings and public hearings to let local drivers know what's coming up on the horizon and to give another chance to weigh in on the plans.