Consultants present Highway 75 preview
Best and worst of ‘new valley road’
unveiled
By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer
For those who are still driving up and
down state Highway 75 between Ketchum and south of Bellevue in, say, 2025, they
will have the best and worst of a new 27-mile stretch costing an estimated $110
million.
It will be wider—four lanes and 110 feet
in most places.
But, alas, not necessarily faster for
drivers.
And in spots, it will be ugly: Vegetation
will have been removed and in one or two places walls eight to 10 feet high will
have been erected as noise barriers.
Those are some of the pluses and minuses
unveiled Monday for the Ketchum City Council and the Blaine County Commission by
Diana Atkins, of the Utah-based consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and
Douglas, awarded a $4.4 million contract to study the proposed road project for
the Idaho Transportation Department.
If funded by the federal government,
Highway 75 rebuilding and renovation will be about a 14-year construction
project, stretching from Ketchum to the intersection with U.S. 20 below
Bellevue.
No funds have yet been appropriated.
Atkins said construction, if approved,
would be broken down into seven phases, with the first in the Fox acres area
between Friedman Memorial Airport and Bellevue to begin in the 2007-2008 period.
The project offers three alternatives, she
explained: the first, leave the highway as-is; the second, two lanes in both
directions, and the third, one lane in each direction designated for car-pooled
High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) use during peak workday traffic hours in the
morning and afternoon.
Using projections involving the year 2025,
Atkins predicted that if the HOV lane is designated between Elkhorn Road south
of Ketchum and McKercher Park in Hailey, 21 percent of the vehicles on the
highway would be carrying 33 percent of the people, while the other 79 percent
of vehicles would use the remaining general-purpose lane during peak hours.
Traffic using the general-purpose lane,
she said, would be as slow or slower during peak hours as today. In answer to a
question from Commissioner Mary Ann Mix, Atkins agreed that general-purpose lane
traffic would be in gridlock during peak hours.
She also said that "very aggressive" bus
service would be in use in 2025—service every 15 minutes during peak hours
instead of today’s once-hourly service.
Yet, despite drawbacks, she said
"accessibility to Valley amenities (would be) enhanced" because of "reasonable
travel timers" between points of interest.
Removal of vegetation and berms along the
rights-of-way, Atkins explained, is a way of eliminating grazing areas for elk
and deer that then wander out into traffic.
As for the high walls that could extend
650 feet along the highway in several places, she said they would not be
permitted under the county’s ordinances. However, she said the conflict probably
could be resolved.
Thus far, the study has grown to 40 pages,
including 99 sheets of 11-by-17-inch charts and overlays.
Much of the study data has been posted on
the Internet at www.sh-75.com.