Finally! The progressives had stopped all the real progress on the Palouse until now!
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against local environmentalists in their fight to stop the long planned for highway safety improvements South of Moscow. The Idaho Transportation Department has been working on plans to improve US Highway 95 over Reisenauer Hill. The proposal calls for realigning the highway with a wider, straighter route. The project was first proposed in the late 90’s.
The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition in Moscow has been fighting the project in federal court for nearly 2 decades. The group claims that the project will harm native Palouse prairie. The organization lost its latest lawsuit in federal court in Idaho last year. They appealed that decision to the 9th Circuit. A 3 judge panel of the court out of San Francisco heard arguments regarding the appeal during a hearing in Portland last month. The panel on Friday upheld the lower court’s decision siding with ITD.
ITD still has to finish buying land for the right of way needed for the new section of highway. The agency also needs a wetland mitigation permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers. After those requirements are completed the agency will put the project out to bid. Officials hope to begin work on the new section of highway in the late Summer or Fall of next year. The new safer section of US95 South of Moscow over Paradise Ridge could be open in the Fall of 2021.