Three major North Idaho highway projects valued at over $300 million in construction costs are underway or expected to begin this year.

“Our region has seen so much growth that we are now trying to build to keep up with that growth,” says Megan Jahns, senior public information officer at the Idaho Transportation Department.

Underway in Post Falls is the Interstate 90-Idaho Route 41 interchange reconstruction project, which is valued at $78 million.

The project began in 2022 and is expected to be completed in 2026.

Kent, Washington-based Scarsella Bros. Inc. is the contractor for the project.

The I-90 westbound off-ramp is now closed through the fall as crews build a new signalized intersection, Jahns says.

“In the future, we’re going to have what’s known as the single-point urban interchange,” she says. “That means that all the ramps come together at one point and there’s one signal that controls everything.”

The ongoing closure will detour traffic to the Seltice Way interchange to the west, where a temporary signal has been installed to handle the increase in traffic.

Also underway is the Idaho Route 53-Pleasant View Road interchange project, which began in October and is expected to be completed in 2026.

Scarsella Bros. is also the contractor for this project, which has an estimated construction cost of $30 million.

Included in the project is the construction of a diamond interchange, the removal of access to state Route 53 from four side roads, the expansion of Pleasant View Road to two lanes in each direction through the interchange, and the widening of state Route 53 to two lanes in each direction through the project limits.

“A lot of people commute between Washington and Idaho on (state Route) 53,” Jahns says.

The largest of the three projects is the planned I-90 widening between state Route 41, in Post Falls, and U.S. 95, in Coeur d’Alene.

The project, which is slated to begin this summer and wrap up in 2029, has an estimated construction cost between $200 million and $210 million.

A contractor hasn't been selected yet.

—Dylan Harris