BOISE - As the population of the Treasure Valley continues to grow, congestion on major roads is becoming more common, especially during morning and afternoon rush hours. This is especially apparent on a busy section of Cole Road.
The Ada County Highway District started work on a plan back in 2011 to make some changes to Cole Road between Franklin Road and the intersection with Interstate-84.
"It's really all about safety and traffic capacity," said Nicole Dubois, a spokesperson for ACHD.
She said the plan is to widen that section of road, to make some changes to the intersection of Cole and Franklin, and to realign the intersection of Cole and McMullen Street.
In order to do this, Dubois says there will have to be right-of-way acquisitions. That is, some homes in the area will be purchased and then torn down.
Dubois says the acquisitions team at ACHD looks ahead when it comes to projects.
"They see what's coming and if they see a property that is for sale and we know we may need it then we purchase it before someone else does and then we don't have to go through another process with them down the road," she explained.
That is exactly what they are doing now, because the Cole Road widening project will mean about nine homes will have to come down.
ACHD has already purchased two properties on the east side of Cole Road between McMullen and Ashland, there are seven more that need to be purchased.
"We do know that these are people's homes," said Dubois. "We always give them fair market value to the property owner and if somebody is a renter we have relocation programs available."
KTVB knocked on the doors of those properties Thursday afternoon, to find out what the occupants had to say. In addition to the two homes already owned by ACHD, two others were either condemned or abandoned, renters occupied another two, and no one answered the door at another home.
One man said he had rented his home for thirteen years and had no idea there was a plan for ACHD to tear down the property. He told KTVB he plans to ask his landlord about it.
However, Dubois said right of way acquisition doesn't even start until 2016, but that it's a must, to make road improvements.
"We have to continue to build up the infrastructure to support all that growth and all that new traffic," said Dubois.
The road expansion project will also impact Intermountain Gas Company, which sits on the west side of Cole. The plan calls for the utility to part with some of its land.
"We are in favor of fixing Cole Road," said Intermountain Gas spokesperson Byron Defenbach. "We like all of our property and we would like to keep all of our property, in a perfect world, but we understand that there might be an overriding need for this."
Defenbach also confirmed that no purchase deal with ACHD has been made, but that they have taken part in continuing conversations for the plan.
Many employees do notice congestion on Cole Road, Defenbach said, and their service trucks are also impacted when the road gets backed up due to rush hour or even a nearby traffic crash.
"Service vehicles that have to go out on this every day we have to bring material into here that is typically brought by a semi," he said. "It's very busy and very critical that, that get fixed."
The construction is expected to begin in 2018.
