Petition to the Idaho Transportation Department Requesting Immediate, Site-Specific Actions to Mi...

Given that the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and the public acknowledge that the stretch of the current U.S. Highway 95 between approximately mile markers 338 and 341 (locally known and hereafter referred to as “Reisenauer Hill”) is substandard and extremely dangerous;

Given that the existing signs suggesting that drivers reduce their speed to 55 miles per hour on Reisenauer Hill have proven largely ineffective;

Given that Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC) and citizens of Latah County, Idaho, asked ITD to take site-specific actions to immediately mitigate the dangers of this stretch of highway on June 8, 2003 (open letter to ITD written by Chuck Harris of PRDC and published in the June 8, 2003 issue of The Moscow-Pullman Daily News);

Given that Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition and citizens of Latah County, Idaho, again asked ITD to take site-specific actions to immediately mitigate the dangers of this stretch of highway in an April 15, 2013 letter;

Given that ITD has refused to lower the speed limit or implement significant, site-specific measures to improve highway safety on Reisenauer Hill in the eleven years since PRDC’s first request;

Given that most of the serious accidents on Reisenauer Hill have occurred during inclement weather; and

Given that ITD’s preferred alternative E2 of the Thorn Creek Road to Moscow Environmental Impact Statement will not fix this section of highway, PRDC recommends that ITD implement alternative C3, which will permanently fix Reisenauer Hill, improve safety, and minimize impacts to wildlife and the critically endangered Palouse Prairie;

We, the undersigned, thus strongly urge ITD to implement the following measures to improve the safety of Reisenauer Hill on U.S. Highway 95:

1. Immediately lower and seek enforcement of the posted speed limit on Reisenauer Hill;
2. Erect warning signs with the reduced speed limit that have weather-activated, flashing, yellow lights on both approaches to this hill;
3. Install rumble strips both in the center line and the fog lines for this section of road; and
4. Place rumble strips in the pavement lane of travel immediately prior to the reduced speed limit signs.