Interstate 11 once conceptialized between Boise and Northern Idaho

[Alex]

Idaho on road to north-south freeway

Article from December 14, 1987.

[agentsteel53]

now that would be a worthwhile road.  Some of 95 gets really windy (especially around the Yahweh's 666 Ambassadors Adopt-a-Highway area!)

[usends]

Idaho on road to north-south freeway
Article from December 14, 1987.

This is interesting on a number of levels.  First, the US 95 corridor through Idaho received major upgrades during the 1970s, so this article was written just 10-20 years after those had taken place.  It's also interesting that the Democratic candidate mentioned in the article (Bruce Robinson) apparently didn't even receive his own party's nomination... according to Wikipedia, the Dem who Larry Craig ran against in the 1988 election was a woman by the name of Jeanne Givens.  So I wonder if voters in the primaries decided that US 95 wasn't really as bad as Robinson was making it out to be.  And finally, this reminded me of some other articles I've read over the past 5 years or so, highlighting a group in Moscow that is throwing up some pretty intense opposition to proposed improvements to US 95 in their area.

[corco]

Currently, the long term proposition is to extend Idaho 16 south to I-84 (construction likely to begin the next couple years), and then north through Indian Valley to a point somewhere south of Council on US-95, built as an expressway. That northern extension has met considerable opposition- there have been many, many articles written about it and I think there's information about it on the ITD website. I don't have time to look now since I'm at work, but I could probably pull some stuff up when i get home tonight.

The Council->Whitebird segment would be hugely difficult to turn into freeway without major realignment or destruction of the river- they'd have to do something quasi-similar to I-70 in Colorado, and Idaho just can't afford to consider that at this point.

On a cultural note, a freeway connecting the two sides of the state would be huge. 95 gets down to 45 MPH for several miles between New Meadows and Riggins, and the road has the be repaved every few years because it gets warn down by trucks to no end.

From a cultural standpoint, the two halves of the state are well separated, since US 95 is literally the ONLY road connecting them, so it would be nice to see a better road through there, but that's a long way off

[agentsteel53]

The Council->Whitebird segment would be hugely difficult to turn into freeway without major realignment or destruction of the river- they'd have to do something quasi-similar to I-70 in Colorado, and Idaho just can't afford to consider that at this point.

is this the White Bird Grade section?  If so, that's already a pretty good expressway from what I remember.  Hell of a climb, though.  7%, I think, which is not interstate standard for downhill.  The old alignment is still present, incidentally, complete with non-corrugated white railing, various old wooden signs, and even a white milepost or two.  

[corco]

s this the White Bird Grade section?  If so, that's already a pretty good expressway from what I remember.  Hell of a climb, though.  7%, I think, which is not interstate standard for downhill.  The old alignment is still present, incidentally, complete with non-corrugated white railing, various old wooden signs, and even a white milepost or two.  

Nope- that would be the Whitebird-Grangeville segment. The town of Whitebird is at the base of the hill, and yeah, from Whitebird to Grangeville the road is really good, and could probably be converted to freeway clear to Lewiston

[agentsteel53]

oddly, I don't remember south of White Bird being too troublesome - then again I'm probably just mentally comparing it to the old grade, which is a fun drive, but it's quite evident why it was bypassed!

[corco]

oddly, I don't remember south of White Bird being too troublesome - then again I'm probably just mentally comparing it to the old grade, which is a fun drive, but it's quite evident why it was bypassed!

The existing road from Whitebird to Riggins isn't too bad, but it would be difficult to convert to freeway. The road should be fine as is for a long time- it just follows a river canyon pretty tightly, so it would require insane amounts of blasting to build a freeway. It can be problematic in the summer when you get stuck behind RVs, but it's not too bad. The worst part is definitely New Meadows-Riggins.

I love the old Whitebird grade as well. For similar (albeit much much shorter) fun, complete with the same old guard rails and wooden signs,  I'd recommend Old Freezeout into Emmett, that being the old SH 16 alignment down into that valley.

If you know where to look and you're into that sort of thing, there's a ton of non-corrugated white guard railing leftover throughout the state.

[agentsteel53]

If you know where to look and you're into that sort of thing, there's a ton of non-corrugated white guard railing leftover throughout the state.

I'm definitely a fan of the stuff, as it hasn't been installed anywhere in the US since the 70s or 80s.  I know that they were using the corrugated stuff by the 50s (if not the 40s - I'll have to look closely at some older Cal Div Hwys photos), and at some point they decided the safety advantage was worth the extra cost.