B&N was selected by the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) to complete the US-95 Passing Lane Study for US-95 from Payette, Idaho, to Weiser, Idaho. As a major corridor for weekend tourism, US-95 is congested and has experienced severe injury and fatality crashes. The study developed alternatives to widen US-95 and create passing lanes, providing additional capacity and addressing high crash areas with turn lanes. The study also evaluated intersection control alternatives, access management and the impact of a potential four-lane divided highway section.
The challenges facing this project included a railroad running parallel to the corridor, right-of-way impacts, a river creating floodplain concerns and the need to balance the true traffic needs with the perceived capacity issues of the corridor.
To address the railroad, B&N optimized the typical section of the future roadway so that the passing lanes did not impact the railroad while minimizing the impacts on private properties on the other side of the roadway. Proposed recommendations were also kept outside of the floodplain. The final recommendations balanced the needs of occasional capacity issues caused by holiday and weekend recreation traffic with the everyday needs of the corridor to improve safety.
Longer passing lanes were recommended rather than adding lanes, which may have led to higher speeds and more crashes, resulting in poorer safety performance. The intersection control recommendations maximized safety and access management while providing a more innovative solution to improve the corridor's safety, mobility and accessibility.