ITD winds down Silver Valley I-90 projects

It appears that Silver Valley drivers will finally see a reprieve from many of the traffic zones on Interstate 90.

For now.

Idaho Transportation Department Public Information Specialist Megan Jahns tells the News-Press that work crews are winding down for the winter season and that means the buttoning up of a few key projects.

“One less work zone you won’t see, and hopefully you’ve already forgotten about, would be the work we were doing near the bottom of Fourth of July Pass.”

Originally, the plan for the ITD contractor was to pave both the east and west bound lanes before winter. With only the westbound lanes currently done though, crews will return to finish what they started in the spring of 2023.

“But for now, no more barrels,” Jahns said.

Jahns added that the big safety improvement with this project was adding barriers in the median to prevent head-on crashes.

Regarding the Division Street and Elizabeth Park Road Bridge work, ITD is still chipping away at the two-year project.

If the weather cooperates, Jahns anticipates that they will be able to close down the work zone in 2-3 weeks.

“You’ll be able to take the new bridges on the eastbound side, then next year, we will start working on the westbound bridges.”

The other big project coming to a close is the repaving work between Wallace and Mullan that has caused numerous headaches.

“The final step is getting the stripping done, which is definitely important, especially with winter coming up,” Jahns said.

While intermittent closures are expected as those lines are painted, the project is planned to be wrapped up completely by Nov. 4.

The last holdout appears to be that of a work zone at the base of the Hilltop Bridge in Kingston, as it expected to continue to reroute traffic away from the eastbound lanes for the time being.

Jahns explains that the main obstacle to finishing off the bridge repairs is a lack of building materials.

“It’s at a bit of a stand still mainly because the work that needs to be done that’s left requires some steel railing and that is apparently in short supply right now.”

She is told that the railing should arrive in mid-November.