City considers changes to major intersection

ITD, Moscow, property owner discuss addition of eastbound lane on side of Highway 95/8 intersection

At peak traffic hours, eastbound vehicles often back up on the west side of the intersection of State Highway 8 and U.S. Highway 95, also known as the south couplet.

While the traffic delays are minor compared to those in larger cities, sometimes it takes a few green lights for drivers at the back of the line to proceed through the intersection.

The Idaho Transportation Department and city of Moscow, however, are considering changes that would improve the traffic flow at the intersection.
 
ITD Project Manager Ken Helm said his department, the city and Steve Vachon, who owns the former Stubbs Seed Warehouse just southeast of the south couplet, discussed during the summer of 2017 adding an eastbound lane on the east side of the intersection at the same time ITD crews were repaving major sections of the intersecting highways.

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Moscow Community Development Director Bill Belknap said the middle lane of the three lanes could become a combination of a through lane and right turn lane to create two through lanes eastbound on

Highway 8. The addition of the eastbound lane on Vachon’s property would connect with the center lane of the three lanes, Belknap said. Helm said the new lane would merge to one lane a short way down Highway 8.

“I think it would help congestion in that intersection, especially at the peak hours,” Helm said. “The rest of the time, traffic flows really good through there.”