McGuire Road railroad crossing closes Thursday near Highway 53

Hauser motorists lost one of the area’s most useful bypasses Thursday when BNSF Railroad shut the McGuire Road crossing beside State Highway 53 from 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The closure pushed commuters, school traffic and delivery drivers back onto nearby roads during the busiest part of the day.

Idaho Transportation Department said the shutdown was not part of the Pleasant View Interchange project and would not affect through traffic on State Highway 53. Even so, the closure hit a corridor already strained by the temporary signal at Pleasant View Road and the steady pull of drivers trying to thread through Hauser’s growing traffic maze.

The McGuire Road crossing has mattered because many motorists use it as a local bypass around the Highway 53 work zone. With the crossing closed, traffic had to shift onto Prairie Avenue and other nearby routes, adding pressure to the same road network that already carries people heading to work, school and local businesses around Kootenai County.

The timing also landed in the middle of a larger construction season. ITD said work on the SH-53 Pleasant View Interchange resumed after the winter shutdown in March 2026, and the agency still expects the interchange and highway widening to open to traffic later this summer. The project is meant to improve safety, mobility and quality of life on the corridor, while eliminating three railroad and vehicle crossings, streamlining access to SH-53 and increasing capacity on key routes.

Later in June, ITD plans another separate overnight closure on Highway 53 near Hollister Hills Road for culvert replacement, adding one more disruption to a stretch of highway that has already become a pinch point for Hauser and the rest of northern Kootenai County. BNSF says railroad grade-crossing maintenance and temporary closures are part of its safety and inspection program, and its Public Projects team works with communities and agencies on crossings that intersect the rail network.