Construction causes commuter delays, frustration
"The work started last week and we’ve been running into
problems on almost a daily basis."
Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling
By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer
Tempers flared late Monday afternoon when hundreds of commuters found
themselves enduring an hour-long trip to get from Ketchum to Hailey.
Traffic was backed up past Saddle Road, as vehicles had to slow to a crawl
to pass over a sloppily filled-in trench at the new St. Luke’s hospital site, about
two miles south of Ketchum.
"It just blows me away," said working mother Heidi
Davies-Miller. "I own a house in Hailey and I’m going to have to rent a house in
Ketchum."
Last week workers began installing a new traffic light and turn lanes at
the site.
Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling said in an interview yesterday that his
dispatch phone has been "completely overloaded with calls" from angry drivers
asking his office to do something about the tie-ups.
"The work started last week and we’ve been running into problems
on almost a daily basis," Femling said.
Sheriff’s deputies were on the highway last night helping to direct
traffic.
Devin Rigby, Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) district engineer, said
Monday night’s slowup was caused by workers filling the trench with wet sand and
gravel, which settled and formed a dip.
"We were calling them last night to get everybody back to the site to
get it taken care of," Femling said.
Rigby said the ITD sent a monitor to the site yesterday to ensure that
workers obeyed a construction permit from the ITD forbidding work on the road before 9
a.m. and between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. He said the monitor was also to check that no
obstruction was placed on the highway that could impede traffic flow during rush hour.
Rigby said the construction permit is held by Blaine County, but that
compliance is up to St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center and Power Engineers, a
Hailey-based firm.
Femling contended that workers at the site yesterday morning were on the
road about 8 a.m. putting up cones, though no actual construction was taking place then.
"We told them to do nothing before 9 a.m.," Femling said.
"I think they keep trying to push the envelope."
The Mountain Express yesterday attempted to verify Femling’s
charge by posing the question to St. Luke’s Wood River Valley Medical
Center—"During what hours of the day is the work going on?"
In accordance with a new St. Luke’s policy that permits only written
answers to written questions from the paper, the hospital responded by re-sending an Aug.
22 press release containing the hours of planned construction—none between 7 a.m. and
9 a.m. and none between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
According to another written response from hospital spokeswoman Hilary
Furlong, construction is planned to be completed by Oct. 5.
"In order to avoid future situations that might cause congestion, our
contractor will now take steps to assure that the road is in good condition for commuter
traffic prior to shutting down each evening," Furlong wrote.
Rigby said the ITD will continue to monitor the situation "very
closely."
