For the week of July 4 - July 10, 2001

Detour placed at East Fork intersection

Timber Way intersection may close

---

By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer

A temporary change in the location of East Fork Road’s intersection with Highway 75, completed Monday night, was the first of several possible changes to an ongoing road construction project.

The detour moves the intersection to the south, about 150 feet north of the Greenhorn fire station.

The detour was in response to public concerns about the intersection’s safety. Tom Logan, project inspector for the Idaho Transportation Department, said the detour will allow motorists coming out of East Fork to see farther and more clearly before entering the highway.

Before construction is completed, the intersection will be moved back to its original spot, where a traffic light will be installed.

Another possible change would be the permanent closure of the intersection of Timber Way, a quarter mile north of the East Fork intersection. The Wood River Regional Transportation Committee voted to recommend the closure during a meeting Thursday in the old Blaine County courthouse.

The committee advises the county commissioners about transportation issues. Its voting members include one commissioner and representatives from Blaine County cities.

The closure will not be effected unless it is approved by the commissioners and the ITD. If the change is included, residents of the Timber Way neighborhood would reach the highway through the Golden Eagle II subdivision, across from East Fork Road.

The committee also approved Ketchum’s resolution to limit the number of single-occupancy vehicles coming into town by restricting parking there. The resolution now goes to the commission, which will decide how to incorporate it into a countywide transportation plan.

Ketchum City Administrator Jim Jaquet, present for the vote, called it a "watershed event."

Jaquet said all the entities in the county should be working together to provide disincentives for single-occupancy vehicles and incentives for carpooling and public transportation.

Another possible change was presented by ITD environmental manager Chuck Carnohan. He said the department could shorten the "transition" of the left turn lane on the north side of the intersection of Highway 75 and East Fork Road.

The highway at that point will have two southbound lanes and two northbound lanes. ITD’s plan has been to taper the width of those five lanes to meet the existing three-lane configuration over a distance of about a mile.

However, Carnohan said, that could be done in the space of one-quarter mile. He said an example of such a taper exists at the intersection with Elkhorn Road.

But, he stressed, the shortening is something that "could be done, not what we propose to do."

The current plan to taper the highway over the distance of a mile will remain in place pending the committee’s receipt of more information.

Diana Atkins, of the consulting engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, told the committee that her firm will create a traffic simulation model to estimate future travel patterns. Atkins said she expects to have a prototype ready by Oct. 15.

That information will become part of the project’s environmental review process. An Environmental Impact Statement, under the National Environmental Policy Act, will help determine what a new Highway 75 from Timmerman Hill to Ketchum will look like.

ITD Director Dwight M. Bower has acknowledged that work underway between Alturas Drive and Timber Way will be subject to change if it is in conflict with the findings of the EIS. In an April 5 letter to the county commissioners, he wrote that the project, except for the Greenhorn bridge, "will not be deemed a pre-existing federal commitment."

Atkins said she expects a draft EIS to be completed in two years.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.