A state highway project meant to push traffic through Coeur d’Alene faster, safer and more efficiently has met the concern of local police, who wonder why they were not consulted about one of the most crash-prone areas of U.S. 95.

Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said that over the past four years, he has met with the Idaho Transportation Department three times to discuss improvements to the five-mile section of U.S. 95 that runs through his jurisdiction.

In that time, the amount of traffic on the corridor from the Spokane River to Prairie Avenue has increased substantially. The transportation department estimates 35,000 motorists push through the corridor daily.

“The Coeur d’Alene Police Department continues to be discouraged with the lack of communication from ITD with our police department with regards to our joint mission of keeping our motoring public safe,” White wrote to the department in a February email. “In the past three years, I have attempted to engage in repeated conversations with ITD which have only resulted in two meetings.”

White’s most recent concerns stem from the 226 crashes in 2017 on the five-mile stretch of highway through his policing area.

“… Roughly half of all collisions on the 155 miles of U.S. 95 in Region 1 occur on the five miles of roadway within our city,” White wrote to Damon Allen, ITD’s district engineer.

Most of the collisions are intersection-related, White said. That means that although many occur at intersections, others happen between intersections as a result of motorists speeding up, slowing down or passing slow-moving vehicles such as tractor trailers trying to get up to speed.

The backed-up traffic is a result of poorly programmed signals, White said.

In an effort to clear standing traffic, White asked the department to allow left turn signals, shunting vehicles from U.S. 95 to side streets, to work simultaneously with north-south lights. The request went unheeded.

“If I don’t have a good engineering component, I can throw all the enforcement at it and it won’t solve the problem,” White said.

Although most of the Coeur d’Alene traffic is local — area residents comprise 92 percent of the volume in the police department’s jurisdiction on U.S. 95 — traffic growth over the past few years is due in large part to regional growth, Allen said.

“The huge increase in traffic volume due to the economy and growth coupled with poor signal hardware/software,” Allen wrote in the email exchange.

The transportation department’s main concern is getting the most traffic through the corridor as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible. It is working on retiming the signals through the corridor, Allen said in the February correspondence.

White said that two months later, the work still has not been completed.

“I would like to see a cooperative effort with the traffic flow issue,” White said.

Megan Sausser of ITD said her department has been working cooperatively with law enforcement, and that the upcoming $8.5 million U.S. 95 project set to break ground next year will rectify many of the congestion and safety issues.

The project, paid in part with federal dollars, will space traffic lights a half mile apart, eliminate cross traffic where there are no lights, use center islands to push north-south traffic onto side streets in some places, and synchronize lights on the route.

“The advancements in technology and spacing, combined with the safety improvements at the non-signalized intersections, will improve safety and mobility throughout this corridor,” Sausser said. “In the meantime, we will continue to work with other agencies, as we have done in the past, to guide improvements in this corridor.”

But White isn’t convinced.

His officers attempt to steer clear of U.S. 95 if they can, because of its continuing backup issues. Those issues only increase during the summer months, just around the corner.

“Our folks try to avoid (U.S.) 95,” White said. “I think everyone who drives 95 is frustrated.”