The Idaho Transportation Department is planning three high-impact projects this summer and fall in North Idaho.

In two separate projects, the department plans to spend a combined about $7 million to repave more than six miles of U.S. 95 through north Coeur d'Alene as well as redeck a bridge that carries the highway over Interstate 90 just south of there. Also, the state soon will seek bids for a $36 million project to replace the Dover Bridge on U.S. 2 near Sandpoint.

The department recently awarded a $4.5 million contract to the Post Falls office of Poe Asphalt Paving Inc. to resurface six miles of U.S. 95 between Appleway and Wyoming Avenue, says department spokeswoman Barbara Babic. The project includes a full-width rehabilitation, in which the old asphalt will be replaced and new curbs and gutters will be constructed.

Work on the project will be done primarily at night to lessen traffic impacts on that busy U.S. 95 corridor, Babic says.

"Traffic volume out there is a real challenge to deal with," Babic says.

The other project is a planned concrete deck resurfacing of a deteriorating bridge that carries the highway over Interstate 90 near the busy intersection of U.S. 95 and Appleway. That project is estimated to cost about $2.5 million, and bids for it will be opened April 7, Babic says. The project is scheduled to begin in September, and to be completed in October. Crews will work on the bridge between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., she says.

Later in the construction season, the department's planned $36 million replacement of the Dover Bridge and its approaches on U.S. 2 will begin. The project has been approved for federal stimulus funding, and bids will be sought for that project in May. The current 290-foot-long, two-lane steel truss bridge carries traffic over railroad tracks on the west side of Dover, Idaho. It will be replaced with a 1,500-foot-long, five-lane concrete structure. The new bridge will be constructed just north of the current bridge, so the current bridge can continue to be used during construction, Babic says.

The new bridge will have a center turn lane and shoulders to accommodate future widening of U.S. 2, Babic says.