Untitled Document

Board to hear report on pavement testing

A pavement testing process that has been used successfully the past 15 years will be described in detail for the Idaho Transportation Board when it meets at Headquarters in Boise this week. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in the auditorium.

Assistant materials engineer Bob Schumacher will discuss hot mix asphalt strips that are used to determine the quality of paving on Idaho’s highways. The acceptance test strip is a short, initial placement of hot mix asphalt plant mix pavement that enables the department to judge whether it complies with state standards.

Schumacher will provide a historical overview on the process, current department procedures and a recent history on the pass/fail percentage of strips tested.

Other board agenda items

St. Joe River Scenic Byway Designation
Presenting for the St. Maries Chamber of Commerce and Benewah and Shoshone counties, Scenic Byways Coordinator Garry Young will ask the board to approve designation of the St. Joe River Road as the St. Joe River Scenic Byway.

The Scenic Byway Advisory Committee reviewed the request, and recommends board approval for the route from the junction of Idaho 3 in the city of St. Maries to the Idaho-Montana line. The application to designate the route as a Scenic Byway focuses on the St. Joe River, the highest navigable river in the world and one of the few rivers that begins and ends in a lake.

Additionally, 26.6 of the river’s 66.3 miles are designated as wild and scenic.
Recognizing the abundance of the area’s resources, the U.S. Forest Service has invested in improving recreational opportunities and campgrounds in the area. The application also identifies 31 sites of interest along the proposed scenic byway.

FY05 Scenic Byway Discretionary Projects
The board also will be asked for approval to submit eight projects to the Federal Highway Administration for FY05 federal Scenic Byway Discretionary funding.

The projects total $1.3 million, with about $1 million coming from the federal program and a local match of $273,263.

The Federal Highway Administration’s $26.5 million for fiscal year 2005 is available on a nationally competitive basis for routes that have been designated as a state scenic, historic, or back country byway. Typically, projects are for seed money for National Scenic Byways, safety improvements, byway enhancements, and marketing/promotion programs. The department’s Scenic Byway Advisory Committee reviewed and prioritized Idaho’s projects.