You have to give it to KQQQ: they know how to write a headline.
Continued legal challenge from environmentalists forces another delay in safety improvements for US95 South of Moscow
And they are right.
A continued legal challenge from a local environmental group has once again halted work to improve safety on US Highway 95 South of Moscow. The Idaho Transportation Department has been trying to improve the highway over Reisenauer Hill for nearly 20 years. The work was initially stopped by the Palouse Ridge Defense Coalition in 2003 when a federal judge agreed with the environmentalists. The organization claims that a new section of highway will damage native Palouse prairie. That decision forced ITD into a 10 year effort to write a full Environmental Impact Statement on the project. That EIS was approved by a federal judge last Fall. The coalition has since appealed Judge Lynn Winmill’s decision to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals out of San Francisco. The move has once again forced ITD to delay ground breaking on the safety project.
Plans call for a new 7 mile section of US95 to be built further up the ridge. The new 4 lane straighter section of highway will improve safety for motorists. The project is still estimated to cost about 45 million dollars but the budget will be reviewed this Spring and is likely to get more expensive. ITD officials will finalize design and purchase right of way for the new section of highway this year. Officials hope to break ground on the project in the Spring of 2019. No word how long it will take the 9th circuit to make a decision on the appeal.