SANDPOINT, Idaho — The Idaho Transportation Board approved $200,000 in funding to start studying replacement options for the Long Bridge on Highway 95 near Sandpoint.
The study is set to begin next year and will look for grant funding to finish the study and design.
The board says the study will include public outreach and updating environmental evaluations.
The study is separate from the ongoing plans to make Highway 95 safer and capable of handling more traffic between Sagle and Lakeshore Drive. As of now, neither plan is funded for construction.
The board says the existing two bridges were built in 1981 and 1956. The oldest of the two, the pedestrian bridge, is severely weight-restricted.
“Up until now, we have been performing maintenance projects to delay replacing this expensive structure until it reached 100 years old,” District Engineer Damon Allen said. “But as we’ve looked to widen US-95 south of town, we’ve heard from the public that they want us to look at this sooner rather than later.”
Costs and staging for a bridge replacement would be determined in later studies, but the board anticipates the cost of building the northbound half of the proposed replacement to be at least $225 million.
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