KMPO has spent more than 20 years trying to build support for the Huetter Road Corridor. We track the Rathdrum Prairie transportation study and put the community's comments on the record.
The No Huetter Bypass Group's reply to the Idaho Transportation Department's (ITD) September 4, 2026 answer to its comments on the Draft FY2027–FY2033 Idaho Transportation Investment Program (ITIP). It asks ITD to analyze the Rathdrum Prairie road network as one system, with state and local projects, signals and costs on one table, before any new alignment advances, and to reconcile and explain the Key Number 24395 interchange row and the Key Number 23349 study funding.
The No Huetter Bypass Group's reply to the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) District 1 letter of September 4, 2026 on the Rathdrum Prairie PEL Study (Key Number 23349). It answers ITD's letter section by section, documents the record gaps that remain, and asks for a bounded public re-screen of lower-taking packages on existing corridors and publication of the screening data before any PEL product moves into NEPA.
The Idaho Transportation Department's (ITD) reply to the No Huetter Bypass Group's Rathdrum Prairie PEL Level 3 Response. ITD District 1 answers each section of the letter, points to the Level 3 public meeting materials for cost, right-of-way and traffic data, and directs requests for other records to ITD's public records process.
About this effort
Our request to Idaho’s state legislators
Request for oversight of the Rathdrum Prairie PEL study (about 2 minutes)
Why it matters: The group asked Kootenai County’s state legislators to tell ITD and KMPO to fix US-95 and existing roads first and not to advance Alternative H.
In September 2026 the No Huetter Bypass Group asked the nine Idaho state legislators for Kootenai County to oversee the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) District 1 and the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization (KMPO) on the Rathdrum Prairie Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) study. The study was meant to find improvements across the Rathdrum Prairie. Instead, it has returned to a single focus: another north-south highway.
That fourth north-south highway, Alternative H, was first estimated at about $300 million and stood at $564 million in the study’s latest public figures. Independent analysis puts it near $800 million, threatening over 112 private properties. Most of the traffic it would carry is local to US-95, which would stay over capacity even after it is built. Meanwhile, lower-cost fixes on existing roads, such as access management, intersection improvements, grade separations and a connection between SH-41 and Lancaster, have not been given equal weight, and the data behind the study’s screening has not been shared in a form the public can check.
The group asked the legislators to tell ITD and KMPO to:
Keep the alternatives focused on improving US-95 and other existing corridors, including the grade separation projects dismissed from the study.
Not recommend Alternative H, or combinations built on it, for the next phase of environmental review (NEPA).
Stop suggesting that land be taken for “future use” before a need is shown.
Will the Huetter Corridor Improve Traffic Conditions in Kootenai County?
Simply, no.
The KMPO has released data results from a 2040 estimated traffic volume model. The difference in car volume impacted on I-95 is less than 15%. Further, the total average impact to car volume on the studied roads would be 8% or less% by 2040. The reason presented for the Huetter Corridor project starting in 2003 was to support growth in Kootenai County. All information presented has proven otherwise. The Huetter Corridor is not the path forward.
United States wide research has also confirmed that Bypass designs are not the way forward. The State Smart Transportation Initiative published the Innovated DOT Handbook in 2015 which addresses many of the issues we experience here in Kootenai County today. It also provides informed guidance on what has worked best.
Consider a broader scope of project options for addressing traffic congestion problems by partnering with local governments.
Many states opt to widen their roadways or add capacity to the same roads they already have when roads suffer from congestion and inadequate capacity. They also sometimes pursue bypass projects, especially when the congested roadway they seek to address serves as a main street or other primary commercial street for a town or city. Instead, states can increase capacity on an overall corridor route by continuing to maintain the
route on a main street and adding improvements on parallel and nearby streets that can increase service to the overall community and corridor area. This is often the least costly option. [bold added]
Focus Area 4, Implementation, Policy Mechanisms, #1 p. 101 from Innovated DOT Handbook (source)
