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Pocatello’s South Valley Connector wins another Project of the Year award

The South Valley Connector project in Pocatello earned a second “Project of the Year” award last week, being selected the Institute of Transportation Engineers (Intermountain Chapter) award winner April 21. The project had previously been named the American Public Works Association Rocky Mountain Chapter Project of the Year.

First envisioned in the summer of 1968, the project to create a new connection to the south valley area of Pocatello opened to the public as South Valley Road just two days before Christmas 2015. W.W. Clyde & Co., of Springville, Utah, was the contractor on the $13.6 million Phase 2 of the project. The $3 million first phase began in 2013 and finished in 2014.

ITD served as the resident engineer on this local project. The South Valley Connector project is a one-mile-long route connecting Bannock Highway to South 5th Avenue. From Bannock Highway in the west, the roadway begins on an elevated plain across a former floodplain and sewage lagoon, traveling east until it reaches the Portneuf River levee. There the alignment switches to a 423-foot, two-span bridge crossing the Portneuf and associated levees, six Union Pacific Railroad tracks and South 2nd Avenue, finally touching down on a basalt lava flow outcropping.

Once located on the bluff overlooking the valley, the roadway crosses beneath Interstate 15 with two overpass bridges. The roadway then resurfaces and connects to South 5th Avenue at a new traffic signal one-half mile south of the nearest I-15 interchange. The roadway consists of two travel lanes, bicycle lanes, and a 10-foot-wide multi-use pathway separated from the road. Additional right-of-way was purchased for future widening.

Click here for time-lapse drone video

“This project is a great example of the kind of outstanding product that results when there is strong collaboration between ITD and the communities we serve,” said ITD Project Engineer Scott Redding.

The award will be presented at a ceremonty in Jackson, Wyoming, in mid-May.