4/15/2010
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
EAGLE ROAD pavement resurfacing project with medians to begin as early as May 2
BOISE - One of Ada County's busiest roads is getting a smooth, new surface. The Idaho Transportation Department is repaving Eagle Road (Idaho 55) from the eastbound ramps of Interstate 84 north to Fairview Avenue starting in early May. The project is expected to take about three months to complete.
The top few inches of pavement will be milled off the surface and replaced. No work on the interchange bridge itself will take place, but the pavement rehabilitation will extend about 250 feet south of the eastbound ramps.
To minimize inconvenience for drivers, all road construction work will take place between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Two lanes each way, with turn bays, will be maintained at all other times.
Currently, 39,000 to 48,000 vehicles travel between I-84 and Fairview Avenue on Eagle Road each day. In addition, the total number of vehicles on all of the Eagle Interchange ramps each day is about 53,000.
According to the Ada County Highway District (ACHD), the intersection of Eagle and Fairview is the busiest intersection in Ada County and the state. Four intersections on Eagle Road are in ACHD's top 8. This project encompasses three of them. ITD statistics show that only the Flying Wye (134,500) is busier than the 132,500 vehicles the Eagle Road Interchange sees every day.
Included in the construction will be the installation of raised medians
from Franklin to Fairview, which will restrict turns at:
Lanark Street, Presidential Drive,
Florence Drive:
-
Prohibited: Left turns out
-
Allowed: Right turns in & right turns out, left turns in
Commercial Street and all other
approaches except Pine Avenue (which remains unchanged):
-
Prohibited: Left turns in & left turns out
-
Allowed: Right turns in & right turns out
Local law enforcement, the city of
Meridian and ITD support the use of medians to control access and as a safety
enhancement measure along this corridor. From Franklin north to Fairview, there
have been 586 reported crashes in the last five years, resulting in 356
injuries and two fatalities.
The medians also will emphasize Eagle Road as a State Highway
intended as a mobility corridor rather than a local street.
The project has
three phases:
- Resurfacing (eastbound I-84 ramps to Franklin): Approximately 3
weeks.
- Median placement (Franklin to Fairview): Approximately one month
- Resurfacing (Franklin to Fairview): Approximately 3 weeks.
ITD
initiated the Eagle Road Arterial Study in 2003. Local municipalities, ACHD,
the Community Action Partnership of Southwest Idaho, homeowners associations
and ValleyRide were all involved in the initial study. This project is largely
a result of those initial meetings, and reflects a need to increase safety and
desire to manage traffic more efficiently.
Central
Paving Co. Inc. of Boise is the contractor on the $1.35 million project.