The Idaho Transportation Department is organizing a Road Safety Audit to look at immediate and long-term safety improvements at Timmerman Junction, one of the top rural accident frequency locations in Blaine County.
ITD District 4 Traffic Engineer Bruce Christensen said Tuesday that team members are being recruited to perform the audit and that he expects to have an "executive summary" by the end of October. Any short-term safety modifications that might be identified in the audit could be implemented before the end of 2010.
Christensen said immediate improvements, such as new signage, road markings or enhanced rumble strips, could likely be funded under the district's maintenance budget. He said possible long-term improvements, such as converting the intersection into a roundabout, would require that a project be subjected to prioritization and placed into ITD's funding cycle.
Christensen said Timmerman Junction, where state Highway 75 intersects U.S. Highway 20 south of Bellevue, has recently received higher ITD attention because of public concern and because the intersection has jumped higher on the district's "high accident locations" list.
In a report evaluating accidents from 2006-2008, Timmerman Junction ranked only 25th in accident frequency and severity in the District 4 area, which includes all or portions of 10 counties in south-central Idaho. Christensen said that in the latest report, which looks at accidents from 2007-2009, Timmerman Junction jumped from 25th to 11th.
There have been four injury accidents at Timmerman Junction from July 2009 to the present. Public criticism of the intersection design increased dramatically this year after two injury accidents occurred in June within the span of just nine days.
In 2009, ITD ranked Timmerman Junction as the fourth most accident-prone area in rural Blaine County. Historically, according to ITD statistics, Timmerman Junction was the scene of 37 traffic accidents between 2000 and 2009. The accidents led to 46 people being injured, but there were no fatalities.
Christensen said news media stories, letters and online comments from the public regarding the intersection have been collected and will be considered as part of the audit.
Membership for the audit team will consist of both local and out-of-area traffic professionals, Christensen said. Recruited so far, he said, are the Blaine County Sheriff's Office, the District 4 maintenance foreman, the District 4 environmental planner and an engineer from the Ada County Highway District. He said he is also trying to recruit an out-of-area highway designer and someone from the ITD Office of Highway Safety in Boise.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
The Idaho Transportation Department is organizing a Road Safety Audit to look at immediate and long-term safety improvements at Timmerman Junction south of Bellevue. Photo by Willy Cook
