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U.S. 95 project selected for national engineering award

A 7.5-mile highway reconstruction/realignment project that significantly improves safety for travelers on U.S. 95 in northern Idaho was selected recently for a national engineering award.

The American Council of Engineering Companies awarded National Finalist status to the U.S. 95 Setters to Bellgrove project that added new lanes, eliminated hazardous curves, replaced aging bridges and realigned portions of the highway.

The award will be presented April 29 during the 2008 Engineering Excellence Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. Representatives of CH2M HILL, the project engineer, will be on hand to accept the award.

U.S. 95 is the primary north-south route through Idaho and is an important artery for interstate commerce and tourism. The Setters to Bellgrove segment was considered to be one of the most dangerous segments of the highway until ITD began a series of major improvements.

Engineering innovations that contributed to the national award include:

A formal collaboration process, with multiple agencies and stakeholders, helped create context sensitive solutions.
An automated anti-icing system that relies on information from ITD’s weather and safety infrastructure was installed at the Lake Creek Bridge.
A new 770-foot, three-span curved steel girder Lake Creek Bridge 100 feet above the river canyon.
A narrow, winding two-lane highway that had limited sight distance was replaced with a safer, four-lane divided highway that has improved ‘viewscapes.”

The project is an example of the kind of partnership needed to develop context sensitive solutions, according to CH2M HILL.

“We are thrilled that the U.S. 95 Setters to Bellgrove project was selected for this prestigious award. We are proud of this project, not only because of the transportation and safety benefits it will provide now and well into the future, but also because of the partnership between ITD and CH2M HILL that made it a winner,” said Dick Jacobson who represents the engineering firm.