Lewiston mulls: signals or roundabouts?

The city of Lewiston will decide if it will regulate vehicles at key downtown intersections with traffic signals or roundabouts after a May 20 vote on a $25 million bond that would help pay for a major downtown infrastructure upgrade.

Dustin Johnson, the city of Lewiston’s public works director, provided that update Wednesday at an informational meeting about the bond. The event was one of at least three the city plans to have about the measure.

His goal, Johnson said, is for the vote to be about the improvements the money would cover for downtown’s water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure, not roundabouts.

A preliminary design released in the fall included three roundabouts, but the city could use traffic signals instead, Johnson said.

The decision will be based on what the Idaho Transportation Department permits and what citizens want, Johnson said.

“ITD does not allow roundabouts on any of their highways,” he said.

Downtown streets would be reconstructed in the project to prevent flooding by improving how water flows into the city’s stormwater collection system. That work would require the city to replace what it uses to control traffic.

If voters approve the bond, the cost of repaying it would be covered with existing property taxes and fees for water, sewer and stormwater, Johnson said.

“This is not new money,” he said. “This is just asking the citizens of Lewiston to bond against existing revenue that we’re already getting.”

Johnson showed a series of pictures illustrating some of the issues with downtown’s infrastructure that would be remedied in the project.

In one, water was about halfway up the tires of an ambulance at the emergency room entrance of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center where patients are unloaded.

The flooding happened during an intense storm because the stormwater pipe between Pioneer Park and downtown is too small, Johnson said.

Another showed a 2-foot sewer line on First Street between Main and D streets that would be replaced with one that is 3 feet in diameter. It was flowing about 60% to 70% full at about 10:30 a.m. after the morning rush of showers and toilet flushes, he said.

“It surges to a point where it is at capacity I’m sure at 6 a.m. when everybody is using that service,” Johnson said. “On top of that, you can see tree roots coming in and this is infiltration from groundwater.”

Yet another picture showed a short section of water pipe that had been patched four times to repair leaks.

The multiple breaks in that pipe and in many others in downtown Lewiston is an indication that the system is deteriorating, Johnson said.

“When you’re working on these water main breaks, this is an emergency repair, so you don’t get to dictate when these repairs happen,” he said. “They’ll happen at midnight. They’ll happen on Christmas.”

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.