Untitled Document

photo courtesy Idaho Airships

Meridian Interchange rebuild wins regional engineering-achievement award

The reconstruction of the Meridian Road Interchange won the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) regional award for Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement a few weeks ago, in a category for projects costing greater than $10 million. The project won the southern Idaho section award from ASCE in April, and advanced to win the regional competition announced Sept. 14.

This latest award adds to the achievements of GARVEE projects across Idaho, which, as a group, have been honored so far with more than 50 awards.

Besides Idaho, ASCE's Region 8 includes Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington (most of the western U.S. except for California).

ITD replaced the Meridian Interchange with a Singe Point Urban Interchange (SPUI), and improved Interstate 84 between Meridian and Five Mile roads, including widening the freeway to four lanes in each direction under the interchange. The $50.8 million work also added a third lane over the top on Meridian Road, and installed sidewalks and a bike lane.

"This regional recognition is such an honor. There were many great projects nominated for the Region 8 awards. This is a testament to the great work of the department and our partners," said District 3 Engineering Manager and GARVEE Manager Amy Schroeder.

Work to replace the interchange, originally built in 1965, began in April 2014. The new interchange opened to traffic late in 2015.

In 1965, approximately 15,000 vehicles traveled over, under, and on and off the interchange each day. Today, that number has increased to more than 133,000 vehicles, and is expected to rise.