Friday, June 27, 2008

ITD anxious to begin Highway 75 expansion

Construction start still dependent upon funding

---

By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

The Idaho Transportation Department is anxious to get rolling on the state Highway 75 expansion project for the Wood River Valley.

ITD has $22 million already earmarked for the estimated $200 million project but can't start spending the money until the final environmental impact statement is approved.

ITD District Engineer Devin Rigby told the Wood River Regional Transportation Committee at its Thursday morning meeting that he expects a record of decision on the environmental impact statement to be signed by federal highway authorities by the end of July.

"We're rolling," Rigby said. "The light at the end of the tunnel is really looking good. Once we have the record of decision we can start acting on the EIS."

Rigby said the first steps undertaken will be to hire design consultants, to conduct aerial surveys of the roadway and to put together a right-of-way acquisition plan.

• acheter cialis
• buy cialis
• cialis

The Highway 75 expansion project encompasses the 27-mile stretch of road from Timmerman Junction—south of Bellevue—to Saddle Road on the northern edge of Ketchum. The plan identified in the environmental impact statement is to construct a four-lane highway from Bellevue north to Ketchum and to build a widened two-lane roadway from Bellevue south to Timmerman Junction.

The start of construction is still dependent upon additional funding and it's not known when the money will be available.