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Board to consider funding request
for UI summer youth institute

The Idaho Transportation Board will consider a request next week to support the National Summer Transportation Institute in its fiscal year 2010 Capital Investment Program. The board continues its summer road schedule conducting its regular business meeting in Pocatello Wednesday at the District 5 office followed by a tour of area projects on Thursday.

The University of Idaho College of Engineering received an On-the-Job Training/Supportive Services discretionary award from the Federal Highway Administration. The $58,179 award will be used to host a Junior Engineering Math and Science Summer Transportation Institute at the UI in Moscow. Similar summer institutes have been held the past 42 years.

Under the unique educational experience, high school students are invited to register for a two-credit Introduction to Engineering course. It is intended to increase participation in transportation engineering fields and boost enrollment in college engineering programs.

Participants live on the Moscow campus, attend courses and laboratories at the university, and engage in challenging design projects. The college atmosphere provides students a transitional experience between high school and college.

Other board business

Projects for use of Economic Stimulus Savings
By March 1, the department obligated all of the $182 million received from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Because of favorable bid awards, $3.2 million is available for additional projects. ITD staff members will request board approval to advance or add new projects to the FY10 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program to take advantage of the savings.

The proposed projects were selected from an internal list developed in anticipation of a second economic stimulus package that did not materialize. Some of the projects being proposed for funding include a bridge preservation project on Idaho 75 in District 4, pedestrian ramps in districts 5 and 6 to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a local project to coordinate traffic signals in Ada County.

Road use Fees for non-reducible overlegal permits
Staff members will review for board members the department’s overlegal permits for non-reducible loads.

Non-reducible loads are those that cannot be broken into smaller units, such as a manufactured home. It is not possible to remove a portion of it to haul on another vehicle. An example of a reducible load is hay. Hay bales can be taken off the load and placed on another one so the vehicle does not exceed the legal weight limit.

Vehicles or loads that are non-reducible and exceed legal axle weights or 80,000 pounds are required to secure a permit and pay road use fees. Those fees are in addition to the registration fees. Carriers can either get a single trip permit or an annual permit.

The fee per mile is determined by the total number of axles and the gross weight. The minimum fee is 4 cents per mile and increases 4 cents per mile for every 2,000-pound increase in weight. The weight formula changes to 7 cents per mile for every 2,000 pound increase at a certain point.

The fee structure is arranged so that the fewer the axles used to distribute the weight, the higher the fee per mile. This encourages carriers to use more axles to distribute the weight and lessen the impact to the highway infrastructure.

The fee structure, established in Idaho Code, has been in place since 1998. It replaced the previous weight distance fees.

In fiscal year 2009, annual permit fees generated $729,565 and single-trip permit fees resulted in revenue of $604,067.