Riverside Road is the road that runs along the Kootenai River dike past the boat launch and out five miles to the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge, crossing the Deep Creek Bridge along the way. The proposed improvements would begin at the Bonners Ferry city limits and include the entire road, ending at the Refuge.
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Formal proposal submitted
The proposal, called the Riverside Road Improvement Project Proposal, was planned, put together, and submitted by a large and impressive collection of agencies and groups, both inside and outside Boundary County. The official proposal was submitted to the Idaho Federal Lands Access Program jointly by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, all having lands accessed by Riverside Road, and by Boundary County, as the entity with maintenance responsibility for the road. Along the way, many other groups were involved in development and planning for the project, and participating in committee meetings and conferences on benefits of the plan and project funding. These additional groups included Friends of the Refuge, Drainage District 1, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Boundary Economic Development Council, the Boundary County Historical Society, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, the International Selkirk Loop, the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative, and local area residents.
The proposed improvements to the road were made under a federal program intended to fund projects that provide better access to federal lands. The program is administered in Idaho under the Idaho Federal Lands Access Program, which is aimed at providing adequate and safe access to and through, federal lands for the public, including visitors, recreationists, and resource users.
Boundary County Road and Bridge prepared the 12 page application, working closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which operates the Refuge), the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. "There was much information and data that each Federal partner provided for the application," said Renee Nelson, Boundary County Road and Bridge office manager. "We all invested much time in the proposal from phone calls and emails to on-site meetings. We also met with members of the Western Federal Lands Access Program for advice and suggestions on our proposal."
Some of the proposed improvements
The Riverside Road Improvement Project proposal is to construct an all-season road by lowering the levee section and relocating the earth fill to the low areas within the project. The proposed road width would be a 32-foot width paved road, which would include two 12-foot lanes with extra-wide paved shoulders to enhance the safety of alternative modes of transportation along the route. "Farm machinery, logging machinery, and fire responders will benefit from this also," said Ms. Nelson.
Riverside Road certainly qualifies as a route that provides access to federal lands. Federal lands for which Riverside Road provides access include the Kootenai River via the Deep Creek Boat Launch, The Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge with its Interpretative Center, auto tour route, and its handicap accesses, the International Selkirk Loop, and numerous U.S. Forest Service trailheads, lakes and falls. Riverside Road provides access to over 198,000 acres of the Panhandle National Forest, over 2,100 acres of BLM lands, and approximately 2,800 acres of the Wildlife Refuge. It also provides access to Tribal Lands of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho.
Proposed upgrades for the road would also include safety improvements for all those who use the road.
Should the final proposal be funded, the road work would be done by Boundary County Road and Bridge, working alongside the Western Federal Lands Highway Division, a division of the Federal Highway Administration. The Western Federal Lands Highway Division would be the lead agency for the project. The same team worked together in the project to replace the old Rutledge Bridge on Moyie River Road with the new "Don Olson Memorial Bridge."
And, speaking of bridges, would there be any changes to the Deep Creek bridge which lies on the current Riverside Road? "There will be no significant changes to the Deep Creek Bridge on Riverside, as it is an existing two lane bridge and will work well with the improvement," said Ms. Nelson.
Submitting the proposal
The process of preparing and submitting the proposal, and shepherding it through various committees and approvals, was an arduous process. The original application was submitted just this past April by Boundary County Road and Bridge. After all 39 applications statewide were reviewed, Boundary County's proposal emerged ranked in the top five, and was scheduled for a field review by the Western Federal Lands Highway Division (whose goal is "to improve transportation to and within Federal and Tribal Lands by providing technical services to the highway/transportation community, as well as building accessible and scenic roads that ensure the many national treasures within our Federal Lands can be enjoyed by all.")
On
August 27, officials from the Western Federal
Lands Highway Division arrived in Boundary
County for an on-site review of the proposed
project. A team from Boundary County Road and
Bridge, the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge,
and the U.S. Forest Service gave a formal
presentation at the Refuge's Educational Center,
showing the benefits of the proposed project.
This presentation included a picture board map
of all the land accessed by Riverside Road,
which included a showcase of scenic and
prominent Boundary County landmarks, such as
Myrtle Falls, Shorty Peak Lookout, West Fork
Cabin, various mountain lakes, peaks, trails,
refuge trails, and hunting blinds, "just to name
a few," said Ms. Nelson, "to show the vast area
Riverside Road accesses." The visiting officials
were taken on a tour of the site. Boundary
County Road and Bridge had prepared signs placed
along Riverside Road showing the project points
and proposed improvements. Questions from the
Federal Lands Highway Division officials were
answered by representatives from the Refuge, the
Forest Service, Boundary County Road and Bridge,
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Kootenai
Tribe of Idaho, and the Boundary County
Commissioners.Following this field review, Boundary County's Riverside Road Project was moved to the No. 2 priority project statewide, with one more committee review required.
Commissioners notified of results
On November 5, about two weeks ago, Boundary County Commissioners received notification from the final committee that the Riverside Road Improvement Project Proposal had been approved for programming, with approval of $3,933,487 in funding for the project. This funding approval is for years 2018 and 2019. With all project approvals and funding approvals in place, note: approvals only, the last step would be the appropriation of the money by Congress.
Other funding sources have been committed. Boundary County would match funds at 7.34%. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would contribute $250,000, and our local Friends of the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge committed to contribute $1,000 to the project.
Should Congress appropriate the requested funds, construction on major improvements for Riverside Road would begin around 2018.