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Idaho Transportation
Department

Office of Communications
P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707
208.334.8005
Fax: 208.334.8563

 


Three-day board meeting to begin with Wednesday workshop

The Idaho Transportation Board will begin a three-day meeting in Boise next week with a workshop that focuses on the department’s budget and Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). The workshop will be Tuesday at the District 3 office on Chinden Boulevard. The monthly business meeting, open to the public, will follow on Wednesday. A tour of Idaho 55 and the Banks-Lowman area is scheduled for Thursday.

The draft FY12 budget includes projected federal revenue of $305.7 million and approximately $253 million in state revenue.

The budget proposal requests more than $13 million for replacement items, most of which is for road equipment. Computer equipment is the second-highest category, although less than $1 million is being requested for new purchases. The out-of-state travel budget request is $249,800, capital facilities is $2.85 million and contract construction is $290 million.

The workshop also will feature a presentation on the department’s project scheduling system. Benefits of the system include real-time data, forecasting capabilities of project delivery dates, knowledge of resource utilization, identifying areas that cause bottlenecks and delays, and providing clear information to all stakeholders.

Board discussion

Partnership survey
The results of a recently completed partnership survey will be presented to the board during its Wednesday business meeting.

Partnerships with stakeholder agencies are critical to ITD’s effectiveness. As part of the effort to strengthen and promote partnerships, 1,500 stakeholders were asked to participate in a survey to gauge satisfaction with ITD’s partnership efforts and methods. Nearly 30 percent responded.

Some of the findings include:

  • Most stakeholders had a generally positive view of their working relationship with ITD.
  • Respondents were especially impressed by the effort that ITD puts toward partnerships, even when they were not entirely satisfied with ITD’s partnership processes or outcomes.
  • Expertise of ITD employees is highly regarded by partners.
  • Participants from local entities were less happy with ITD’s partnership efforts.

Strategic Highway Safety Plan
ITD staff members will request board approval of the updated Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

The plan, initially created in 2006, is a data-driven, comprehensive plan that includes a goal, emphasis areas and strategies to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries. It focuses resources on education, enforcement, engineering and emergency response.

The highway safety plan is being updated to include emphasis areas that focus more effectively on contributors to traffic deaths and serious injuries, incorporate new goals, include emphasis area teams to work on the specific contributors to traffic deaths and serious injuries, develop action steps and track completed work, build and empower partnerships, and require evaluations.

The primary goal is “fewer than 200 annual traffic deaths on Idaho roadways by 2012.” By comparison, in 2008, there were 232 traffic fatalities in Idaho. Of those, 147 occurred on the state highway system.

Some of the plan’s emphasis areas include aggressive driving, distracted driving, youthful drivers and lane departures. Aggressive driving contributed to 100 of the fatalities in 2008.

District 3 tour
A tour of District 3 on Thursday will complete the three-day agenda. The board will travel Idaho Highway 55 to Banks and then to Lowman on the Banks-Lowman highway. The local road is being considered for addition to the state highway system.

Staff will make presentations on the statewide avalanche program and the incident response program in Lowman.

A stop at the Garden Valley airport also is planned.

Published 6-11-2010