A $5 million project to widen a mile-long stretch of Prairie Avenue near Post Falls into a five-lane thoroughfare has been added to a six-year transportation plan by Kootenai County's transportation planning agency.

The project, which is being sought by the Post Falls Highway District, would include adding two lanes plus a turning lane to the two-lane Prairie Avenue between Huetter and Meyer roads, about 2.5 miles west of U.S. 95. It would be the second step in a long-range plan to create a 10.5-mile connector between U.S. 95 at the north end of Coeur d'Alene and state Route 53 at Hauser, Idaho, says Kelly Brownsberger, road supervisor for the district. Prairie Avenue already serves as a major east-west collector cross the Rathdrum Prairie, and the widening is needed because of increased traffic in that area, he says.

No money has been secured yet, however, for the project, Brownsberger says.

The Post Falls Highway District is one of four transportation districts in the county responsible for constructing and maintaining roads and highways in unincorporated areas.

The district completed the first part of the overall project in 2006, widening a 2.5-mile stretch of Prairie from U.S. 95 west to Huetter Road at a cost of about $5 million, Brownsberger says.

With the second phase now added to the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization's six-year transportation improvement plan, the district expects to begin design work and right-of-way acquisition in the next couple of years and also will seek federal funds for construction for the project.

In the project, Prairie Avenue would be expanded to 60 feet wide from 28 feet wide, and 5-foot-wide bicycle lanes would be added on each side, as well as curbs, gutters, and storm-water swales, Brownsberger says.

He says the projected cost of the one-mile project is comparable to the cost of the previous 2.5-mile project, because the cost of materials is rising so quickly.

After the project, the next planned work would widen Prairie another mile to the west to state Route 41, just east of a 250-acre planned mixed-use development called Tullamore.

That stretch could be partially funded by developers, Brownsberger says.