Board to tour District 4, meet in Burley
The Idaho Transportation Board will get a firsthand look at how rugged snow removal equipment is manufactured when it tours south-central Idaho next week on its 2013 district visits.
The meeting in District 4 will include a tour of Kodiak America, a manufacturer of snow blowers, runway sweepers and push plows used to clear snow. The company's website claims it “makes the toughest, strongest snow removal equipment in the world.”
Tours of highway construction projects in Cassia County also are on Wednesday's road agenda. Members will return to Burley for the board’s monthly business meeting Thursday.
Business meeting agenda
State Railroad Grade Crossing Protection Fund
The annual report on the State Railroad Grade Crossing Protection Fund will be presented at the Thursday business meeting that is open to the public. The program is designed to reduce the number and severity of vehicle-train collisions at public rail-highway crossings. Twelve railroads operate in Idaho; there are 1,440 public rail-highway crossings.
A review team prioritizes safety improvements for existing crossings and selects projects based on district priorities, field evaluations, vehicle-train collision reports, reports of near misses and broken crossing gates. Criteria also include input from railroad owners and local entities and information from inventorying existing crossings.
Safety projects can include closing of crossings, installation of signals, upgrades to existing crossing surfaces and/or safety devices and improvements to sight distances for vehicles and trains. ITD receives $250,000 from the fuel tax annually for state projects.
Two people were killed in vehicle-train collisions at public crossings in Idaho last year. The five-year (2008-2012) average is 1.2 fatalities per year. Both of the 2012 fatalities occurred during the day, as did the four crashes that caused injuries and two incidents that resulted in property damage only. The eight collisions last year are fewer than the five-year average of 15.
End of fiscal year adjustments to highway program
With the federal fiscal year concluding on Sept. 30, ITD must ensure those funds are fully expended. Of the $286.8 million available, $270.7 million have been committed. ITD staff members identified approximately $500,000 in projects that will not be ready this fiscal year. That will require delaying or removing them from the program.
It also identified $2 million in cost increases required to deliver existing projects. The adjustments leave $14.6 million for advancing projects for funding.
ITD’s staff will provide a list of $53.8 million in projects that could be ready to advance for the available funds. Upon board approval, projects will be advanced based on priority and fund availability.
Clarify program publications terminology
ITD publishes the Idaho Transportation Investment Program (ITIP) and Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). Metropolitan Planning Organizations have Transportation Improvement Programs (TIP). Talking about STIPs, TIPs, and ITIPs can be confusing.
Stakeholders use plans for the project information. Plans are intended to keep interested parties informed of work being planned in their area. They also provide a work plan for project development activities, managing resources and assets, and serving as a baseline for performance measures related to on-time and on-budget delivery.
The ITIP is ITD’s name for its program. It includes flexible reporting for multiple purposes in various formats.
The STIP is the federal name for the statewide program. The format is optimized for federal approval of the program, including the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration, and is based on federal regulations. It includes the TIPs of metropolitan planning organizations, which are documents identifying their planned projects.
Published 8-9-13