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Board members learn of District 5 mobility options

Residents of southeast Idaho use more than automobiles to reach their destinations, according to a report to the Idaho Transportation Board when it met in Pocatello May 16 for its monthly business meeting.

In District 5, according to the report, 2,085 persons walk to work, accounting for 9.5 percent of the state population that walks to work. That ranks last among the state’s six districts. Another 563 people bike to work, or about 7 percent of the state’s population that commutes by bicycle – fourth among the districts.

Some highlights of the past year in the District 5 public transportation include:

The extension of fixed route services to eight new areas of Pocatello
The addition of bicycle racks on all transit vehicles, and
Ride Link, which connects workers from Pocatello to the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls and Monsanto in Soda Springs, provided 6,239 passenger trips.

Among the district’s challenges are: sustaining the increased ridership levels, enhancing public perceptions and awareness, and addressing air quality issues in the Preston and Cache Valley areas. Efforts will continue to build coalitions to address environmental and growth issues, enhance existing services and establish or enhance partnerships to secure additional revenue.

Other board discussion

Idaho moves freight
The board learned about freight issues from two local businesses: Pacific Steel & Recycling and Wada Farms.

Wada Farms, based in Pingree, operates diversified farms across three southeastern Idaho counties, totaling close to 30,000 irrigated acres. The original farming operation has expanded to include a fresh potato, onion and sweet potato sales and marketing group, 140,000 square-foot fresh-potato packing warehouse and a trucking company.

Pacific Steel and Recycling’s goal is to keep recyclable material out of the solid waste system. Reclaiming valuable secondary materials for reuse in new products conserves natural resources and makes better use of landfill capacity. Amenities such as drive-through recycling, pick-up service and roll-off containers are available. Pacific also carries many steel products.

Both companies rely heavily on highways and rail to move products.

Increasing weight limits would be advantageous to both companies, according to reports to the transportation board. If additional products could be loaded on each truck, that would result in fewer trips and fewer trucks on the highways

The businesses also are at a competitive disadvantage because a number of surrounding states allow weights of 129,000 pounds on their interstate systems, but Idaho does not. It was noted, however, that increasing the weight limit on the interstate system would take Congressional action.

Winter maintenance operations
District 5 summarized its winter maintenance operations for board members, emphasizing the importance of staff and equipment.

Staff members noted that maintenance employees work weekends, nights and holidays to ensure the roads are safe and passable. One example: Dennis Mendenhall retired as the Blackfoot foreman after 43 years with ITD. During that time, Dennis spent only five Christmases at home with his family.

The district has 67 employees committed to winter maintenance plus 20 others who have commercial drivers’ licenses that can be called to duty. They responded to 183 storm events last winter and spent almost $700,000 for fuel, $640,000 for salt and brine and about $500,000 for repair and shop costs to keep the fleet running.

In an average winter, crews plow 140,000 miles and use 15,500 tons of salt and 900,000 gallons of brine.

Equipment includes 67 plows and sanders, which are available on a 24-hour-per-day basis and four rotary snowplows. These are typically used where snow accumulation is the heaviest. For example, Strawberry Summit usually receives more than nine feet of snow most winters.