POST FALLS, Idaho — Fans of Embers By The Green in Post Falls know where to find a good slice of pizza, but getting there’s been a struggle for the last several months thanks to the work being done on a nearby interchange.
According to restaurant owner Allison Burnett, the construction project at the interchange of I-90 and State Highway 41 in Post Falls has definitely made an impact on business, which is located by The Highlands Golf Course.
“2023 started out for the first six months really strong,” Burnett said. “And towards the end of July, when the construction really picked up, was when we definitely felt things slow down quite a bit."
That slow down could stick around. Work on the $78 million project kicked off last year as part of Gov. Brad Little's “Leading Idaho” initiative.
Part of the project will involve moving the interchange to the north side of I-90 with a design needing only one traffic signal.
According to Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) public information officer Heather McDaniel, safety's a big reason behind the project.
“This particular intersection was ranked as the 10th highest accident-prone intersection in the state of Idaho, not just in District 1 or Kootenai County, but in the entire state," McDaniel said.
According to ITD, the interchange saw 297 crashes over a five-year period from 2012 to 2017. Two of those crashes were fatal.
"That gave us a lot of concern as bumping it up as a priority on our project load to look at," McDaniel said.
The other reason: to make more room for more drivers.
McDaniel says traffic in this particular area of the interstate’s expected to double by 2045.
“It's looking like there's going to be probably about 111,500 cars that are utilizing this I-90 corridor every single day," McDaniel said.
Some of the work construction crews have done so far includes a temporary bridge that’ll allow them to shift traffic over so crews can work on existing lanes.
The full project is expected to be done in 2025, but the I-90/SH-41 interchange project’s only the beginning, says McDaniel, with I-90 expansion projects stretching from SH-41 to Coeur d'Alene and to the Washington state line in the works.
While ITD knows many drivers aren't happy about the added traffic that’s been a result of the project, McDaniel says it’s necessary to take care of the project now:
"Keeping up and making sure that we're doing stuff that's going to last, you know, not just for the next two years, but into the future," McDaniel said. "Trust me, we don't want to be back here redoing this project again in five years.”
While business has slowed at Embers By The Green, Burnett says it did lead to one surprise.
”We've seen an increase in our to go sales,” Burnett said.
She added most of them are coming exclusively from the surrounding Highlands community.
Yet, even with the support, she's ready for the interchange project to finish.
"We're grateful with all the expansion, that they're on top of it and they're working on this project, but we will be very happy when it wraps up," Burnett said.
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