4/27/2010
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
EAGLE ROAD: Phase One of resurfacing project to start overnight Sunday (May 2)
BOISE - Starting overnight Sunday (May 2), the Idaho Transportation Department will begin a three-month resurfacing project on heavily traveled Eagle Road (Idaho 55). Phase one of the project, which will last approximately three weeks, begins at the eastbound ramps of Interstate 84 and continues north to Franklin Road.
Crews will work a Sunday through Thursday, 8 p.m to 6 a.m. overnight schedule to minimize inconvenience for drivers. Two lanes each way, with turn bays, will be maintained at all other times.
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 toward Overland Road.
The second phase of the project will be the
installation of raised medians
from Franklin Road to Fairview Avenue, which will take approximately one month to complete. This work is unlikely to start until July. The medians restrict left turns at the following locations:
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 reinforce the fact that Eagle Road is a State
Highway intended as a mobility corridor rather than a local street.
The final phase of the project is the resurfacing of Franklin Road to Fairview Avenue, and will take approximately three weeks to complete.
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.
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.