Interstate Concrete & Asphalt Co., of Coeur d'Alene, has begun work on a city of Post Falls project to improve 15th Street near Post Falls Middle School.

The $750,000 project includes widening 15th in places so that the entire stretch of road between Spokane Street and Idaho Street is 40 feet wide, and adding six-foot-wide bicycle lanes on both sides of the road.

Interstate Concrete also will construct a sidewalk on the north side of the roadway, says Robert Palus, a Post Falls engineer.

Currently, that stretch of roadway has no pathways for bicycles or pedestrians, he says.

The project is being paid for in part by $430,000 in federal street enhancement funds distributed through the state of Idaho, Palus says.

The project originally was scheduled to begin in early March, but weather delayed it until the end of March, Palus says. It is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Also this year, Post Falls plans to construct roundabouts at two intersections in the city, Palus says.

Each of the projects, which will be located at Poleline Avenue's intersections with Spokane and Idaho streets, will cost about $300,000, he says.

In certain places, traffic roundabouts reduce speeds more effectively than traffic signals, Palus says.

"They move traffic better than signalized or stop-controlled intersections," resulting in fuel savings, time savings, and safety improvements, for a cost that's the same as or less than the cost of signals, he says.

The project at Spokane Street will be done by city crews, and the roundabout at Poleline and Idaho will be paid for in part by the developer of a large Post Falls housing development called Fieldstone.

Separately, the city also will install a traffic signal at Seltice Way and Cedar Street, which Palus says is needed due to increasing traffic volumes and accidents there, at a cost of about $300,000.