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Turn bay improvements bring high praise for D-3 engineers

As part of a U.S. 20 seal coat this summer, District 3 Traffic Engineer Kevin Sablan suggested and designed alterations to the intersection striping plans to essentially use excess space from the shoulders and re-stripe it for turn bays at four problematic intersections.

In late August, the intersections with Chinden at KCID Road, Northside Boulevard, Midland Boulevard and Can-Ada Road were reconfigured with turn bays. All four locations had significant accident histories. The KCID/Chinden intersection was on the High Accident Location (HAL) list for the district.

Sablan worked with Residency 1 Engineer Daris Bruce and project manager Kelley Lower to have the contractor stripe in the turn bays at each of the four locations.

It has already met with approval. On Nov. 1, members of the Caldwell Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee expressed their appreciation to District Engineer Dave Jones.

Sablan recalled that “I received a phone call from the public asking that we look at adding a turn lane at Can-Ada as part of the seal coat project; this person had noticed many close calls.

“The need for a turn bay also was brought up by our striping foreman, Jerry Richards, who drives through the area coming to and from work every day. We looked into it and found that Can-Ada, Midland, and Northside would be good candidates, as they tie right into I-84 interchanges to the south in Nampa.”

KCID also was on the HAL intersection list.
“I visited all four intersections, and they all had vehicle skid marks leading up to the intersection. I contacted Canyon Highway District #4 to get their thoughts on adding turn lanes; they supported the idea.”

Mona Hunt did the design and put together the plan sheet. Hunt and Sajonara Tipuric assisted Kelley in laying out the turn bays at the site.