Highway 53 at Prairie Avenue: why the road closed, and how the new Pleasant View interchange works

If you used to take Prairie Avenue straight to Highway 53 near Hauser, that connection is gone. Since Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, Prairie Avenue no longer connects to the highway. Neither does McGuire Road. Everyone now uses the new Pleasant View Road interchange, a set of bridges that lifts traffic over the highway and the BNSF Railway tracks.

Here is the whole story: what was built, why, who paid for it, how long it took, and what is still to come.

What changed

The Idaho Transportation Department built a diamond interchange where Pleasant View Road meets Highway 53. One bridge carries Pleasant View Road over the highway, and a second carries it over the railroad. On- and off-ramps put drivers onto Highway 53 without stopping for a train or turning left across fast traffic.

To make that work, four side roads lost their direct connection to the highway:

Prairie Avenue: its crossing of the tracks to Highway 53 is closed for good, and the temporary traffic signal there was removed. ITD is rebuilding the old Prairie Avenue and Beck Road intersection into a smooth curve, so the two become one continuous road. That work closed the area for up to a week starting Sept. 28, with traffic detoured to Seltice Way.

McGuire Road: its highway access closed the same day. ITD planned a cul-de-sac at the end of McGuire Road, south of the tracks.

Hauser Lake Road and Hollister Hills Road: Hauser Lake Road gets a cul-de-sac at its old highway connection and ties into Hollister Hills Road, which curves to meet the north side of the new interchange.

Highway 53 itself was shifted north and widened to two lanes in each direction with a center median through the project. Pleasant View Road is two lanes in each direction through the interchange.

ITD has said plainly that some drivers will now travel farther to reach the interchange.

Why: trains, crashes and waiting

Near Hauser, Highway 53 runs right beside the BNSF Railway tracks. Pleasant View Road, Prairie Avenue and McGuire Road all crossed those tracks at street level to reach the highway. When ITD won federal money for the project in 2023, it said about 46 train movements were recorded at the crossings each day.

That meant blocked roads, backed-up traffic and train horns. "Communities along SH-53 are regularly impacted by noise and blocked traffic as trains move through this area," ITD project manager James Dorman said when construction began.

It also meant risky turns. Drivers on side roads had to turn left across high-speed highway traffic. In June 2018, a motorcyclist from Spokane was killed when a car turning from Highway 53 onto Pleasant View Road crossed his path, according to the Idaho State Police.

With the crossings at Pleasant View, Prairie and McGuire closed, ITD says drivers will no longer wait for trains there or hear the horns, and emergency vehicles get a route that trains can't block.

Twenty years in the making

The interchange is not a new idea. It was first named in 2006 in a study called Bridging the Valley, which set out to separate car traffic from train traffic along about 42 miles between Spokane and Athol. ITD showed early designs to the public in 2012, held a public hearing in 2014 and finished the design in 2015.

Then it waited for money. As recently as 2023, ITD was planning to build it starting in 2028.

Who paid

On June 5, 2023, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded ITD a $36 million grant from its new Railroad Crossing Elimination program, one of the largest awards in that first round. ITD, BNSF Railway and the Post Falls Highway District put up the required 20% local match.

ITD estimated construction at $30 million. The regional planning agency, the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization, set the construction budget at $45 million after the grant arrived. The interchange is the largest piece of more than $66 million in improvements along the Highway 53 corridor.

How it was built

Construction began in early October 2024. The contractor is Scarsella Bros. Inc. of Kent, Washington. Crews started with the footings for the bridge over the railroad and the new highway alignment north of the old road.

In March 2025, ITD closed Pleasant View Road at the highway and sent its traffic west on Prairie Avenue. That detour was the hard part for neighbors. Trains crossing Prairie Avenue backed traffic up, sometimes all the way to the Prairie Avenue roundabout at peak times. ITD installed a temporary signal at Prairie Avenue and Highway 53 early in 2025, but it could not be switched on until BNSF tied it to the train crossing so it could detect oncoming trains. Left turns between Prairie Avenue and Beck Road were blocked for the whole project.

Work stopped for winter and resumed March 6, 2026. The opening was set for Friday, Sept. 25, then moved to Monday, Sept. 28, so all the traffic changes could happen at once, which ITD said was the safest approach.

What's still coming

Crews will keep finishing drainage and landscaping, mostly along the shoulders, until spring 2027, when ITD expects the project to be complete.

On the rest of Highway 53, the next big job is the stretch from the Washington state line to Hauser Lake Road: a rebuilt roadbase plus a center lane and turn lanes, expected to start in 2030. ITD has also been designing work between Bruss Road and Latah Street.

Not the same Prairie Avenue project

Don't confuse this with the Post Falls Highway District's separate plan to widen Prairie Avenue between Meyer Road and Highway 41, or this summer's Prairie Trail underpass near Meyer Road. Those are miles to the east.

Need help?

ITD's project team: info@sh53corridor.com or 208-772-1200. For live road conditions, visit 511.idaho.gov or dial 511.