US 95 Thorncreek Road to Moscow
ITD decisions presented at Open House January 18-19, 2006

At the January 2006 ITD Open House, most of the environmental reports were represented, and there were fly-overs of each of the ten alignments.

ITD seemingly arbitrarily decided to select one alternative from each corridor (one Western, one Central, and one Eastern) to move forward, with the other 2 or 3 in the corridor recommended for elimination. By the environmental matrix, it may be that two or more alignments in one corrridor rate better than any of the alignments in another corridor. Each alignment should be analyzed on its own merits without prejudgment by its neighborliness.

The alternatives they selected were: W4, C3, and E2.
Following is their bullet-point reasoning for each alternative.

ALTERNATIVE W1

ITD recommends elimination

ALTERNATIVE W2

ITD recommends elimination

ALTERNATIVE W3 (COMBINATION OF W1 TO W2)

ITD recommends elimination

ALTERNATIVE W4 (VARIATION OF C1 and W1)

ITD recommends carrying forward

ALTERNATIVE C1

ITD recommends elimination

ALTERNATIVE C2 (COMBINATION OF C1 TO W2)

ITD recommends elimination

ALTERNATIVE C3 (VARIATION OF C1 TO THE EAST FROM EID ROAD TO CAMERON ROAD)

ITD recommends carrying forward

ALTERNATIVE E1

ITD recommends elimination

ALTERNATIVE E2

ITD recommends carrying forward * This is arguably not true. All Eastern alternatives coincide at the southern end, beside a CDC plant survey site. They will all have the same impact. The EPA has said that E2 will have a direct impact on the Palouse prairie ecosystem.

ALTERNATIVE E3 (COMBINATION OF E2 TO E1)

ITD recommends elimination
Some of my personal observations are:
The Eastern alternatives would all have truck escape routes.
The eastern alignments damage the natural environment -- they take out Palouse prairie near Cameron Road and near the southern end, and directly impact habitat of several species of concern (pigmy nuthatch, long-eared bat).
The eastern alternatives would require major wildlife mitigation - fencing, one-way outs.
The eastern alternatives take out more houses than do W or C alternatives.
Weather: increased snows, winds, fog.
Paradise Ridge is a wildlife area.
Costs of wildlife mitigation should be considered. They will be substantial for the eastern routes.

I believe that the "safety" (traffic accident) study is flawed. Safety - study flawed. The Average Daily Traffic used is 6150 for all alternatives. Each alternative should be split into pieces of the following three types: 1) Overlap (new alignment on top of old US95 alignment), 2) New alignment not on top of existing US95, and 3) remaining existing US95. Average Daily Traffic can be used for the 'Overlap' miles, but a smaller figure should be used for the new alignment, as the traffic would be split between remaining US95 and the new alignment. In addition, the traffic on the remaining existing US95 must be acknowledged. (An EIS must study reasonably forseeable effects of an action.)
By my calculations, the accident rate for new and old US95 is lowest for alternative C1, followed closely by C2.

We do not need, nor do we want, an over-engineered divided four-lane highway ending just a mile or so south of town. . Especially at the edge of town, we need to have an attractive roadway that enhances Moscow rather than dominating it with a huge roadway. Suddenly funneling a honking-wide highway with two northbound lanes down to one northbound at the Palouse River Drive bridge will be awkward

Ideally, ITD would make this entire section of US95 a good 2-lane with passing and turn lanes as needed. This would fit in with EPA specification of maximum use of existing infrastructure -- reusing the corridor rather than turning more farmland or prairie grasslands into another transportation corridor. Latah County already is near the top of Idaho counties in amount of roads. This would also fit into the Federal Highway Administration's guidelines to do context sensitive design. All of the alternatives that ITD is offering appear to have huge cuts and fills. All of the eastern routes endanger Palouse prairie, the most endangered ecosystem in North America (USGS).

It should not be too late to include this alternative as an offshoot to alternative C1. Engineering design has not been completed.


Please comment on the environmental studies, and on each alignment. ITD can supposedly still be talked out of their decisions at this point. Public comment is open through Febraury 3, 2006. E-mail thorncreekroadtomoscow@itd.idaho.gov and rbci@cableone.net.