WALLACE — One month of repairs to the historical guardrail along Front Street and the stone wall that channelizes the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River in Wallace have begun.

Construction Crews are expected to work Monday through Thursday and will detour westbound traffic around the construction on Front Street. Eastbound traffic on Front Street and access to the interstate will not be affected.

Work this year will focus on adding the historical metal railing to the top of the concrete guardrail, extending more of the sidewalk and finishing the wall, which must be done by hand when the water table is low. Crews will build scaffolding over the river to collect debris and use as a work platform. The temporary pavement on Front Street will be replaced with permanent pavement as well.

ITD's work on the project started on July 13, 2020, with the goal of repairing the retaining wall and guardrail between the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and Front Street.

Since then, crews have been repairing the aged retaining wall by hand while water levels dropped to appropriate levels. Its purpose has been to guide the South Fork past Wallace while also protecting the town from washouts during flooding seasons.

The guardrail replacement has also been a huge improvement over what used to sit atop, and run the length of, the retaining wall.

The old rail had historically been there to keep vehicles and pedestrians from having a straight shot into the river, but its condition had become so poor that temporary concrete barriers had to be placed next to it to temporarily handle that responsibility.

Construction from July to November 2020 successfully removed the old wall and added a concrete guardrail and sidewalk.

ITD Public Information Officer Megan Jahns contributed to this report.