Category Archives: Highway 95 Re-Route

A Win-Win Option

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Keith G. Haley, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News 1/24/13

A few important thoughts on the U.S. Highway 95 relocation.

The realignment of 95 south of Moscow will be permanent.

It is important we get it right. I feel certain the C-3 alternative route is absolutely the best choice.

My first reason is highway elevation. Anybody who has lived on the Palouse for more than a summer knows the hill to the north of Moscow, Steakhouse Hill, and to the south, Reisenauer Hill, are the winter danger spots. Black ice, blowing snow and unpredictable weather issues begin in November each year and can last until late spring. Continue reading →

ITD to Host U.S. Highway 95 Reroute Hearing Today

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The Idaho Transportation Department is hosting an open house 2-8:30 p.m. today at the Best Western Plus University Inn where public comment will be taken regarding its plans to reroute U.S. Highway 95 from Thorncreek Road to Moscow and a recently published draft environmental impact statement for the project.

ITD spokesman Adam Rush said there will be technical and project staff with ITD available to answer questions along with additional informative literature. There are western, central and ITD-preferred eastern realignment routes being considered with open mic times for comment at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. There will also be areas to leave written comments.

The public statements are part of the process as we move forward with this project,” Rush said. “We really encourage people to show up and give us their input and comments.”

(By The Moscow-Pullman Daily News)

Don’t Blame Paradise Ridge Defenders

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Kas Dumroese, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News

With all due respect to Wayne Olson and Shelley Bennett, their angst is misdirected. The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition welcomes a new U.S. Highway 95, just not by Paradise Ridge. PRDC members (hunters, farmers, foresters, small business owners, environmentalists, etc.) are concerned about safety and passionate about quality of life issues. My teenager commuted on U.S. 95, too.

We still drive on old U.S. 95 because ITD ignored law. With that mistake, ITD could have selected from many potential routes meeting project objectives without requiring the extensive time and money of a draft environmental impact statement, but instead pursued the route flanking Paradise Ridge (E2) that did. Although we could have been driving on a new route years ago, stubbornly, perhaps out of wounded professional pride, ITD pushes the version they admit is the noisiest and has the most negative effect on wildlife, Palouse Prairie and access by rural residents and emergency responders. ITD’s conclusion E2 will be safest is disingenuous – it does so by forcing nearly everyone who lives south of Moscow and north of Thorncreek Road off the new interstate and restricting them to commute on the existing, dangerous route. First responders to Hidden Village, for example, will still travel the old route. Continue reading →

Highway 95 Forum 1-19-13

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Opening of the U.S. Highway 95 Reroute Discussion

Part 1 of the U.S. Highway 95 Reroute Discussion

Part 2 of the U.S. Highway 95 Reroute Discussion

(Also see Tim Hatten’s presentation slides: posted soon)

Part 3 of the U.S. Highway 95 Reroute Discussion

C-3 Is Superior Reroute for U.S. Highway 95

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Al Poplawski

Al Poplawski

Al Poplawski, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News 1/22/13

The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition appreciates the opportunity to respond to several letters to the editor during the last week that made erroneous statements regarding PRDC and the Idaho Transportation Department’s U.S. Highway 95 re-alignment project. Hopefully we can clear up many of these misunderstandings.

In the following discussion we have done our best to provide a factual summary of the draft environmental impact statement.

We share Wayne Olson’s concern for safety. However, we don’t accept responsibility for accidents on the highway. PRDC forced ITD to follow the law that required that they create an EIS. The responsibility is with the laws of our land. We only encouraged following the law. The EIS must consider all factors, propose a wide range of alternatives and select the alternative that best satisfies the “purpose and need” of the project – while observing all laws and regulations. The purpose for this project requires improvement of safety, efficiency and handling of traffic volume. It may take a little longer, but if this process is done well we should get a safe highway. A DEIS usually takes an agency a year or two to perform. It is not our responsibility that ITD took so many years to perform this analysis. Continue reading →

Coalition Prefers Central U.S. Highway 95 Reroute

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Concerned community members review DEIS and tour the highway site.

The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition held a forum and field trip on the U.S. Highway 95 Thorncreek Road to Moscow realignment project on Saturday, January 19.

The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) released a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) with three realignment options earlier this month.  The department stated the eastern route – E-2 – as their preferred alternative.

The coalition took issue with ITD’s E-2 proposal, which would involve constructing a bridge over Eid Road and impacting remnant Palouse prairie land.

The main purpose of the realignment would be to improve the safety and travel time on the stretch of highway. Continue reading →

E-2 Is Not the Safest Route

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Mary and Steve Ullrich, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News 1/21/13

In response to Wayne Olson’s letter damning the Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition concerning safety and delay of the U.S. 95 realignment (Daily News, January 16): We of the PRDC sincerely desire a safe Highway 95, as does everyone.

Unfortunately, ITD did nothing to improve safety of the current highway in the interim, not even lowering the speed limit from 60 mph. Three safe alternatives were studied by ITD. Any of these will provide a safer four-lane highway and are deemed “acceptable” to ITD.

According to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, two alternatives, Eastern-2 and Central-3 have similar construction costs, distances (within 0.09 mile) and projected injury/fatal crashes.

The crash projections do not take weather into account, yet ITD reported that 57 percent of the accidents on Highway 95 were weather related. The minimal weather study is flawed; conducted January-May 2005, one of the mildest winters ever. Continue reading →

Big Questions for U.S. Highway 95

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Victoria Seever, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News 1/21/13

I reviewed a good chunk of the Highway 95 Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the three alternate routes. On paper, it looked to me like one orange and two apples with E2 displacing fewer residences and businesses, a huge consideration in my opinion. Why not go with the Idaho Transportation Department’s preferred E2 route? Answers to my nagging questions may be in the less conspicuous science reports and ITD’s agendas. To learn more, I attended a January 19 forum and field tour. Seeing the actual east route was a mountain of information.

All three routes satisfy safety concerns. We can speak out, repeatedly submit testimony, and change our opinions as needed before public comment ends Feb. 23. I would like to tour the central C3 and west W4 routes. The east route is not looking so good to me now. A few E2 issues follow.

Near and on Paradise Ridge, it was considerably colder, windier and snowier than in town. Freezing fog and drifting snow was woefully neglected in the study. Trucks will be broad-sided by wind adding to road hazards. Distance wise, the east route is about 10 seconds shorter than the Central route? Continue reading →

ITD to Hold Public Hearing Regarding Thorncreek Road to Moscow Project

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The Idaho Transportation Department invites the public to comment on the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) at its public hearing that presents alternatives to improve U.S. Highway 95 between Thorncreek Road and the city of Moscow.  The hearing will be from 2:00 to 8:30 pm on Wednesday, January 23, at the Best Western Plus University Inn, 1516 West Pullman Road.  The public can also view more information at US95ThornCreek.com or visit the Moscow Chamber to review a copy of the DEIS and pick up a free informational DVD and brochure.

Highway 95 Forum and Field Trip 1-19-13

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In early January 2013, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) released its U.S. 95 Thorncreek Road to Moscow draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and technical reports on three alternatives for proposed realignment of the dangerously accident-prone 6.5-mile stretch of Highway 95 just south of Moscow. Its preferred E-2 alternative mirrors 10A of the 2002 ITD environmental assessment that the Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition and its allies successfully challenged, secured a federal injunction, and forced ITD to complete the current DEIS review process. The purportedly shorter and safer E-2 eastern route would climb 400 to 500 feet up the western, exposed shoulder of scenic Paradise Ridge, while compromising weather-related highway traveler safety, area aesthetics and noise levels, wetland preservation, and protection of rare remnants of native Palouse Prairie habitat and wildlife. It would also inflict the greatest detrimental effects on pine stands, ungulate conservation and collisions, endangered species, and ecosystem restoration, as it imposes more stream tributary crossings, impervious surfaces, pollution runoff, and weed infestations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Idaho Department of Fish and Game have strongly recommended against this eastern Highway 95 corridor, likely advanced by ITD to accommodate international industrial traffic like tar sands megaloads.

The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition, Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition, and concerned Moscow area citizens and groups welcomed public involvement and discussion at the Highway 95 Forum and Field Trip, a knowledge-sharing session in the 1912 Center Great Room in Moscow, followed by E-2 realignment site visits on Saturday, January 19, 2013. Between noon and 2 pm, community members Al Poplawsky, Cass Davis, Tim Hatten, and Brett Haverstick summarized the DEIS, presented arguments in opposition to the eastern alternative, and opened the informational meeting to questions and insights. From 2 until 5 pm, event organizers and participants carpooled and staged a field trip to locations along and near the proposed eastern Highway 95 route described in the DEIS. Several Paradise Ridge residents hosted pertinent site explorations and talks off Eid and Paradise Ridge roads in the sunny, early evening light. For further information about the Highway 95 Forum and Field Trip, see the event descriptions on facebook and on the Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) website. Ongoing issue updates, articles, and interviews appear in the Highway 95 Re-Route section of the WIRT website.

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