The drive time between Ketchum and Hailey will likely take a little longer for most of August because of a new round of road work.
The state Highway 75 stretch between the two cities will undergo "micro sealing" between Aug. 1 and Aug. 24, according to Scott Stacey, resident engineer for the Idaho Transportation Department's Shoshone district office.
The road was paved two years ago and the addition of a thin layer of skid-resistant micro sealing is a scheduled final phase of the project.
Stacey, who noted that the $1.6 million project was awarded to Intermountain Slurry Seal, said the sealing will start at the Ketchum end of the segment and work south.
Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc said ITD informed him the sealing would be undertaken in June. But when the start date was changed, he was not informed of the reason.
ITD project supervisor Tom Logan said the sealing originally was planned for June or July, but was shifted to August because sealing is temperature-sensitive and requires warmer temperatures.
Logan said traffic delays during morning and afternoon rush hours should be somewhere between five and 20 minutes, but that detours around the work -- such as the use of Serenade Lane in Ketchum and Buttercup and Broadway Run farther south -- should keep traffic flowing.
He emphasized that micro sealing is not the same as chip sealing. Motorists will not be driving over a rough surface and the highway should remain bike-friendly.
