Traffic on Hwy 200 on 9/16/05

As you can see from the pictures below,
the traffic is backed up... as far as the
eye can see by the town of Kootenai.

They have closed Hwy. 200 this am.
They will start to tear apart some of the road
as you go thru the town of Ponderay. So
they cut off the road near the Hoot Owl
and up to the Kootenai Cut-off Road.
Then to add to this mess... the train
went down the tracks, blocking off
the traffic for about 3 minutes. Which
at 7:30 am on Hwy 200, seems more like
15 minutes.

From 7:15 to 7:55 am the stream of
traffic that flows thru Hwy 200 is
almost in competition with Spokane.
One of the business men of the
town of Kootenai, had it counted
for business reasons. It was
estimated that there are over 900
cars that go by in that hour. Coming
from Clark Fork, Hope and even near
by towns in Montana.

So there they were this morning. Now,
they had a warning as the sign was
posted yesterday that they were going
to close the road. If it had been me,
I would have waiting until 8 am
to close it, but then the highway
crew have their own deal.

I have to say I was proud of all the
drivers as they past by the town
of Kootenai. Each one of them
stopped and let the people out
of the town to head for work.
I did not see any vehicle have
to wait more than seconds to
enter the highway, thanks
to the polite drivers.

Now we wonder how long this will
last. Is it for just one day? And of
course this is just a taste of what
is to come. As they will be tearing the
junction at Hwy 200 and the Kootenai
Cut-off Road apart so they can install
the traffic light that is going to be coming
soon.

So will the traffic of 7:30 be starting at 7
instead?