Sand Creek Byway

South Beck & Baird provided master planning services for the $93 million project. As part of the master planning, SBB representatives played an integral part of the overall design, facilitating communication among the community and other key stakeholders. The multimodal project created a safer and more direct route through North Idaho while maintaining the history and beauty of the area.

South Beck & Baird efforts were focused on developing vegetative green walls on the 35 mechanically stabilized earth walls. Building upon unstable and compressible soils meant that careful consideration was necessary because of the long-term vegetative weight of the selected plant material. The final design had over 15,000 vines planted vertically in the walls, making it the first “green wall” in the Idaho transportation system. The green walls are an important visual feature, as the community did not want their town overwhelmed by vertical concrete typically associated with such a large interstate project.

SBB was also responsible for the $3.2 million landscape and irrigation design, as well as an extensive 2.1-mile bike and pedestrian pathway. The project included lighting, benches, sprinkler irrigation, railing, pumping systems, retaining walls, parking lots, emergency vehicle access and drainage ponds. SBB coordinated with environmental engineers to ensure shoreline stabilization for the lake shore – the largest single order of wetland sod ever in the State of Idaho.