Delineation staggering to improve safety and save time

Once implemented after construction this summer, a delineation innovation is expected to improve mobility and safety for highway users in the Craigmont area, while saving the time of the local operations crew.

Rather than placing delineator posts at corresponding locations on Idaho Highway 62 as it has always been done, the Craigmont crew is looking to try something new: staggering delineator posts.

Craigmont is located within a farming region that produces crops from grain to garbanzo beans, which means farmers often use the highway to move combines and other equipment. Since the equipment is nearly as wide as the two-lane highway, posts are often knocked down and left in the roadway.

“If we wait until after farming season, we pick up hundreds of posts,” said Craigmont foreman Lee Linabary. “We go out at least once a month to make sure it is safe for public travel.”

Staggering the posts should help solve the problem.

“Offsetting the posts will make it easier for large farm equipment to make it down the highway by allowing the equipment to weave between them and not try to squeeze past them,” Linabary said.

Linabary does not expect any issues to arise after changing the spacing of the posts, but he does hope the change will reduce roadway hazards and increase the efficiency of the nearby shed by lessening the need to replace delineators.

Published 06-01-18