10/25/2013

Beat the clock
Savings (daylight) will disappear Nov. 2
Enjoy your morning sunlight, what's left of it. Beginning Saturday, Nov. 2, most of the continental U.S. will revert to Standard (real) Time. The end of Daylight Saving Time (change your clocks between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. ... or before going to bed, Nov. 2) means sunlight will come an hour earlier in the morning; in contrast, darkness will arrive an hour earlier in the evening.
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AASHTO accolades
ITD might need larger trophy case after winning 4 AASHTO awards
ITD received more national awards than any other state Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in Denver. The department earned three coveted AASHTO Presidents Awards in administration, aviation and the environment.
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Highway safety
Wildlife/vehicle conflicts lead to lower nighttime speed limit
A new nighttime speed-limit restriction on Idaho 75 north of Hailey took effect this week, designed to minimize conflicts between wildlife and vehicles. The goal to keep wildlife alive originated with a group of Hailey third graders last year.
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Highways
'Design-build' project No. 2 on Idaho Business Review list
Idaho’s first design-build project, in west Boise at State Street (Idaho 44) and Linder Road, was named one of the Top Projects by the Idaho Business Review. Crews rebuilt the intersection and widened the highway to five lanes. The project began in Nov. 2012 and will finish by the end of this month.
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Highway cleanup
Home away from home?
Litter comes in strange forms, even an outdoor living room. A recent discovery by an Adopt-A-Highway group working near Idaho 21 resembled a backyard living area, complete with a reasonably solid couch. The only thing missing was a barbecue and ice chest.
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Whitewater Park Blvd.
New route opens to Headquarters
A construction project that changes the way many ITD employees reach Headquarters welcomed motorists for the first time Thursday. Whitewater Park Boulevard officially opened after a morning ribbon-cutting ceremony at Idaho River Sports parking lot. The five-lane road (two lanes in each direction with a center turn lane) creates a new route from Fairview Avenue to State Street.
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Employees
Protect yourself against influenza
Blue Cross of Idaho: Winter is rapidly approaching, and that means flu season. Flu, also called influenza, is a contagious viral respiratory disease. Symptoms can include fever, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, muscle or body aches, headache and fatigue.
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Highway safety
Safety advocate urges parental involvement in teen driving
Jeff Larson: After nearly a decade of dropping, the number of teen deaths in car crashes has begun to rise again. In the first six months of 2012, the death toll for 16- and 17-year-old drivers killed in crashes nationwide reached 240 – a 19 percent increase over the same period in 2011.
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AASHTO
AASHTO board names Kentucky's Hancock president
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Board of Directors last week voted at its annual meeting to elect Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) Secretary Mike Hancock as the association's president. John Cox, director of the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT), was elected AASHTO vice president.
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District engineer
Encore (10-18-13): D-2 welcomes Dave Kuisti home
ITD announced this week the selection of Dave Kuisti as District 2 Engineer, succeeding Jim Carpenter who held the position the past 19 years. Kuisti will assume his new duties Nov. 4. He joined the department after earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho in Moscow.
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Highways
Encore (10-18-13): Focus on greener side of black earns Ford national honor
Cathy Ford's commitment to roadside vegetation programs at ITD earned praise from a national organization recently. She was one of just six individuals selected from city, county and state levels to receive the 2013 Turney Hernandez award from the National Roadside Vegetation Management Association.
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Highways
Encore (10-18-13): ITD's Statewide Roadside Program
ITD implements a comprehensive and integrated vegetation management program that assures water quality, improves erosion and sediment control, reduces roadside maintenance, enhances natural beauty, manages noxious weeds, and protects natural habitats.
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Highways
Encore (10-18-13): Integrated Vegetation Management for Roadsides
Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management (IRVM) can be considered as quality management for roadsides. It is a decision-making process that considers a variety of tools to manage vegetation in an economically and environmentally-sound manner.
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Highways
Encore (10-18-13): ITD research focuses on reducing wildlife collisions
ITD’s Research Program has launched two projects to tackle environmental concerns involving vehicles and wildlife. The goal is to decrease crashes involving wildlife, thereby improving highway safety and preserving wildlife.
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After high water
Encore (10-18-13): September floods take toll on Idaho highways
A series of floods around southwest Idaho highways in early September cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance funds, took thousands of worker-hours and required the removal of millions of pounds of debris.
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