7/30/2014
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
New Boise River bridge, Idaho 16 extension by the numbers
BOISE - When the new Idaho 16 extension connecting State Street to Chinden Boulevard with a new bridge over the Boise River opens at 10:16 a.m. on Aug. 15, it will be the culmination of two years of construction and a decade of planning.
Construction on the project began in late May 2012. Central Valley Expressway Coalition, the group spearheading the planning and funding of the Aug. 15 event, also powered the May 24 event two years ago.
Construction on the bridge and roadway connections has been performed under several projects at a combined cost of nearly $39 million. The total cost, including design, engineering, acquiring land and construction, was $111.1 million.
There are some impressive numbers surrounding the 2.5-mile Idaho 16 extension:
- The new Boise River Bridge is 1,726 feet long, 88 feet wide and weighs 38 million lbs.;
- More than 1.5 million pounds of rebar and over 36.6 million pounds of concrete were used in the massive bridge;
- The bridge was made with 121 girders (11 per span), each 157 feet long and weighing 150,000 lbs. – 970 lbs. per foot;
- The new bridge was made with 4.85 miles of pile;
- The bridge project also took 4,200 tons of asphalt and 146,000 cubic yards of granular borrow fill material; and
- Expected traffic across the new bridge is 22,000 drivers per day initially.
In addition, the projects to connect State to Chinden used more than 450,000 cubic yards of excavation and granular borrow, nearly 260,000 tons of roadway ballast, 52,000 tons of asphalt for paving, more than 50,000 square yards of concrete paving, and bridge crossings at the Phyllis Canal and Joplin Road used nearly 375,000 lbs. of rebar. Approximately 200,000 personnel hours were used by crews to construct the bridge and connections.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place just south of the new bridge. People are invited to walk the new route starting at 9:30 a.m. The new route will open to traffic by the evening’s commute.
Event traffic is asked to enter the site via Chinden and leave via State. Only right-turn traffic will be allowed onto those routes. Local law enforcement will be stationed at each end to direct motorists. Click here for a map of the event site.
Concrete Placing Co., of Boise, and Idaho Sand & Gravel, of Nampa, are the prime contractors on these projects. Knife River Construction, of Boise, and Nampa Paving are two of the main sub-contractors for this work.