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Ports, grants, trucks and infrastructure highlight November meeting
of Idaho Transportation Board

The Nov. 17 Idaho Transportation Board meeting in Boise featured a Port of Entry study, truck routes, FASTLANE grants, infrastructure needs and more.

Business meeting
The annual report on the department’s Research Program was provided at the November 17 board meeting at Headquarters.

The budget for the Research Program for FY17 is $1.8 million, with 14 percent coming from state sources. Federal statutes require that 2 percent of funding for roads and bridges be used for planning and research.

A Port of Entry (POE) study evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the current POE program, gathered information on best practices, and developed recommendations to improve operations. The project also included an online survey that found that 88 percent of respondents believe Idaho’s POE system maintains a level playing field and 73 percent said that ITD staff is as efficient in processing vehicles as other states.

Staff also summarized the 129,000-lb. Trucking Evaluations for Local Highway Jurisdictions research project. The intent of the project was to provide local highway jurisdictions an evaluation tool to assess route requests. The study has not been finalized yet. Upon completion, the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council will provide training to local highway jurisdictions on designating 129,000-lb. truck routes.

Some of the other projects completed in FY16 were the constructive culture project, the use of recycled asphalt pavement as aggregate in concrete pavement, and a laboratory study of fiber-reinforced asphalt products. Some of the current projects underway are a field study of a new low-cost approach to monitoring bridge scour, the effectiveness and reliability of a Doppler radar wildlife detection system, and the safety impacts of wide pavement markings on two-lane rural highways. Projects planned in FY17 include assessing concrete performance in aggressive salt environments, developing performance measures for asphalt mix design, and assessing the accuracy of new software applications for measuring roadway smoothness at construction sites.

FASTLANE grant
Federal FASTLANE grant applications are due by Dec. 15, 2016. The grants will fund critical freight and highway projects across the country. There are two types of grants: large grants for projects costing more than $87 million for Idaho, and small grants for projects that cost between $5 million and $87 million.

The board approved District 3’s request to apply for a grant on I-84 in Canyon County from the Northside Boulevard interchange to the Franklin Boulevard interchange, including work on both interchanges. The project is one of the key remaining segments of the estimated $818.7 million I-84 corridor project in the area. The total estimated cost for this segment is $98.3 million; however, the FASTLANE grant would request about $59 million. The required 40 percent match of $39.3 million would come from other federal funds, state funds, the city of Nampa, and Canyon County. The application will be developed in partnership with the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho.

Annual Report
The board approved the FY16 Annual Report; however, it had extensive discussion on funding issues. Idaho Code requires an annual report on the department’s financial condition and management. It reported that the Governor’s Task Force determined that the state has as $262 million backlog in maintenance needs; however, additional revenue of $96.7 million was provided in 2015, leaving a $165.3 million shortfall.

At a workshop last month, the board heard about the growing backlog of infrastructure needs. Discussion focused on whether updated backlog numbers should be used; but at the November meeting, the consensus was that the $262 million maintenance shortfall that the Governor’s Task Force identified is a credible, accepted number, and introducing the updated backlog dollar amount at this time may be problematic.

The board also discussed the restrictiveness of the additional revenue provided in 2015. Those funds are to be used for maintenance. The board asked staff to prepare information concerning federal funding available for maintenance, safety, and capacity projects to present to the legislature in 2017. Emphasis should be placed on the importance of providing flexibility with transportation funds.