PONDERAY - A long-awaited project to improve safety and congestion finally got the green light.

The Idaho Transportation Board voted Wednesday to approve $11.8 million in funding to upgrade U.S. Highway 95 from Sandpoint through Ponderay. The funding request was unanimously approved during the board's meeting in Lewiston.

Ponderay Mayor Carol Kunzeman, one the project's many cheerleaders, watched the board approve the funding request via video link from the Idaho Transportation Department's District 1 headquarters in Hayden.

Kunzeman said she did the "happy dance" all the way back to Ponderay.

"It's just going to be so much nicer for our community and all the people that travel down that road," she said.

State Sen. Shawn Keough, another project supporter, was also pleased with the board's approval.

"It's been on and off the schedule for over 15 years. It's always been one of the projects of the area that has been important to me."

The wizened, three-lane stretch of highway has fallen into such disrepair that a center turn lane has been pressed into service as the southbound lane of travel. It has no pedestrian facilities and the Bonner Mall Way intersection is the scene of frequent collisions.

Damon Allen, ITD's District 1 engineer, said U.S. 95 in Ponderay carries approximately 20,000 vehicles per day.

"It's got an elevated crash history. We're getting, on average, about 15 accidents a year in that corridor. Forty percent of those are at Bonner Mall Way," Allen told the board.

The project will widen the corridor to four lanes separated by a median. A traffic signal will be installed at Bonner Mall Way and a separated pedestrian path will extend from the south end of the project to Bonner Mall Way.

Barbara Babic, District 1 spokeswoman, said the project is expected to go out to bid this summer. Work is anticipated to commence this construction season.