Construction of a new interchange requested by a private developer on Interstate 90 near the west edge of Post Falls likely won't start before late 2011, possibly about the time that Spokane County's Appleway Bridge replacement project near the state line nears completion, says Bill Melvin, Post Falls city engineer.

Work on the proposed $25 million Beck Road interchange had been anticipated to start last fall, but a required interstate justification report still is under review by the Federal Highway Administration, Melvin says. The interchange would become the primary access to the 200-acre Pointe at Post Falls commercial development that includes a big Cabela's Inc. sporting goods store.

The interchange, which would be roughly halfway between the Stateline and Pleasant View Road interchanges, would connect to Beck Road, a north-south road that intersects with Seltice Way north of the Pointe at Post Falls and currently ends just north of I-90.

Foursquare Properties Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., developer of the Pointe at Post Falls, initially would pay for the interchange and would be reimbursed through a portion of the Idaho sales tax that would be generated by the development under a pilot program designed to encourage economic development. In addition to the Cabela's store, which opened in late 2007, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. supercenter is under construction there and scheduled to open later this year.

Meantime, Spokane County plans to start work before this summer on the $6.2 million Appleway Bridge replacement near the Stateline interchange just on the Washington state side of the border with Idaho, Melvin says. The project will close that part of Appleway Road for more than a year. The aging Appleway Bridge currently is on an access route to businesses at Stateline, Idaho, and the Pointe at Post Falls for drivers coming from Washington state. Max J. Kuney Co., of Spokane, is the contractor on that project.

While the Appleway Bridge project is under way, the I-90 interchange at Pleasant View Road, about two miles east of the state line, will be the main route to the Pointe at Post Falls and Stateline, Idaho, businesses from I-90, Melvin says.

The Appleway Bridge project and the construction at the planned Beck Road interchange likely won't affect I-90 traffic simultaneously, Melvin says.

"They could overlap, but not by much," he says. "I don't know that they will affect each other."

Foursquare couldn't be reached for comment on the Beck Road interchange project. Foursquare's primary engineering consultant for the project, Omaha, Neb.-based HDR Engineering Inc., which has an office in Coeur d'Alene, declines to comment on it.

Melvin says representatives of HDR Engineering, the Idaho state Transportation Department, the city of Post Falls, and the Post Falls Highway District met with Federal Highway Administration representatives last week to discuss the project status.

"At this point, they are trying to clarify exactly what the Federal Highway Administration is looking for," Melvin says.

Peter Hartman, Boise-based regional administrator for the federal agency, declines to comment specifically on the Beck Road interchange proposal, but points out that an interchange justification report must satisfy several required criteria, the first of which is that adequate access can't be addressed through interchanges or local roads in place now.

Other criteria require that a new interchange meet local and regional land-use transportation plans, have no adverse effect on highway safety, and undergo an environmental evaluation that would include other options.