Smoothing out Seltice

COEUR d'ALENE — Workers conducted pavement coring tests on Seltice Way earlier this week to know what the old road is made of so they can plan how best to tear it up.

"That's going to (have an) impact when they take the road apart," Coeur d'Alene city project manager Chris Bates said Wednesday. "How they deconstruct it will impact the construction."

The Seltice Way Reconstruction project is in its very first stages, but people won't be seeing heavy work until construction season 2017.

In February, the Coeur d'Alene City Council approved a financial agreement with ignite cda and approved a professional services agreement with Welch Comer and Associates to move forward with the Seltice Way Reconstruction project, which will improve the road from the bridge by the Prairie Trail west to Huetter. The total design and bid contract with Welch Comer is $342,900, with ignite cda contributing $250,000 and the city using impact fees to pay the remaining $92,900.

Welch Comer senior project manager and consulting engineer Matt Gillis said Seltice Way Reconstruction will essentially be two projects — one that focuses on reconstructing the road and one that includes installing sidewalks and a shared-use path. Overall, it will cost in the millions, he said, but the exact price won't be found until all the conceptual work is complete and construction costs have been calculated. He said federal dollars will come into play for the sidewalk project.

"The condition of Seltice is very poor," Gillis said. "The current road in several places is the original concrete state highway, which is 60-plus years old. The concrete is very strong, but it's served its life. It's time to rehabilitate or reconstruct."

Bates said Seltice will look about the same as it does now, but the future Seltice Way will include a few traffic lights as well as the ped-bike-friendly paths. He said it will be the first time Seltice will have undergone so much work since its construction and when reconstruction is complete, the community will have "a wonderful road."

"It's the old interstate. It hasn't been touched except for a piece here and there," he said. "It'll be a really nice road, plus it will be safer."

Gillis said Welch Comer has been meeting with stakeholders along Seltice and the project will include "a pretty robust public outreach effort" that will welcome input from the community. A date has not yet been set for a public input workshop, but he said it should happen in the near future.

The work will stretch about a mile and a half on both sides of Seltice and should be completed by the end of 2018. An early proposed design maintains the split road but adds a green belt, places a traffic signal at the Atlas Road intersection and incorporates a focus on lighting as well. A signal at Huetter Road and road construction beyond city boundaries is to be funded by The Post Falls Highway District.

"I think this corridor has a lot of potential," Gillis said. "I think with the development that we've seen on the north and south side of Seltice, a newly reconfigured Seltice Way will be a tremendous benefit to the area."