As I-90 is set to expand, Coeur d'Alene neighbors worry about noise

Elizabeth Middlewood and Kelly Stahl both live in Circuit at Seltice, a 39-home community off Interstate 90 in Coeur d’Alene. 

As far as they’re concerned, the nearby traffic is already substantial, and they fear plans to widen the interstate will make it worse. 

“We get a lot of noise from the freeway already,” Stahl said to the Coeur d’Alene City Council on Tuesday. “Doubling that raises our concern a lot.” 

Both said they asked the Idaho Transportation Department if a wall could be built to provide a noise barrier but were told no because an analysis found the area didn’t qualify for one. 

“It’s a little difficult to understand because we do border the freeway and we have a good amount of noise and pollution from that,” Stahl said. 

The women asked if the city could help and fund a wall of arborvitaes, or some other natural barrier for about a 350-foot section. 

“That was our hope,” Stahl said. 

Erika Bowen, ITD manager of the I-90 widening project from Highway 41 to U.S. 95, said construction is scheduled to start this summer and will take about four years to complete. 

The project will add two lanes for east- and westbound traffic, creating four lanes of travel in both directions. ITD will also be replacing and widening bridges over Huetter Road, Atlas Road and Prairie Trail, as well as realigning and improving adjacent sections of Prairie Trail and the North Idaho Centennial Trail and lengthening existing on- and off-ramps. 

Preliminary estimates, when compiled in 2022, value the projects at $160 million to $200 million, which includes design, right of way and construction costs, according to ITD.

A 20-foot retaining wall will separate west and east traffic. Bowen said ITD will widen the interstate as best it can to the inside, but from Atlas Road to Northwest Boulevard, “our right of way tightens up quite a bit.” 

ITD will be adding a 6-foot chain-link fence along the route as a safety measure for those using the Centennial Trail.

“We're absolutely trying to save and preserve any of the trees that we can. I know that’s a big signature part of this corridor,” Bowen said. 

She said the 5-mile stretch is a congested corridor, but none of it qualifies for noise-barrier walls. 

"This section was identified as the most urgently needed to improve drivers’ experience," according to ITD.

She said per Federal Highway Administration regulations, noise walls are only constructed where they are considered “reasonable and feasible.” 

A noise analysis from Highway 41 to 15th Street in Coeur d’Alene found the area did not qualify for funding to build noise walls.  

Bowen said a consultant took a baseline of noise decibels along the corridor and used a model to input traffic projections and checked to see if it would pass a certain decibel threshold by 2045, when traffic is expected to be double what it is today.

It did not.

“There will be no noise walls as part of the I-90 widening project,” Bowen said.

Councilor Christie Wood, who lives near the Coeur d’Alene Public Golf Course by I-90, asked what options citizens could consider to be protected from the I-90 traffic noise that is sure to increase.

“What do we have to do?” she asked 

Bowen said there wasn’t more that could be done. 

"The department would not look at building noise walls in that area,” she said. 

Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation Director Bill Greenwood said the city would look into planting arborvitaes or some other vegetation between Circuit at Seltice and I-90 to help reduce noise and dust but would need access to the community’s water.