SMITHS FERRY, Idaho — After a rock slide forced the closure of Highway 55 near Smiths Ferry for nearly three weeks, Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) crews finally reopened the road on Monday afternoon. Residents in the Smiths Ferry area said they're happy to see it reopen and that the necessary construction for safety is complete.
Smiths Ferry resident Joe Rogan and his wife have lived in the area full-time for three years and have owned property there for 20 years. In the two decades they've been there, Rogan said a closure like this has never lasted that long.
"For the most part, except on a couple of small occasions, they've kept to their schedule," Rogan said. "It is a pain in the butt to have to sit in line waiting to go to Cascade."
Rogan told KTVB he and his neighbors ran into various issues when part of Highway 55 was closed this last time around, like going to doctor's appointments, getting groceries, getting mail, packages and more. Luckily, Rogan said after discussions with officials, residents in the area were able to visit nearby towns, like Cascade, using a not well-maintained backroad.
"I mean stuff happens, it's not like we're in the middle of nowhere," Rogan said.
Even though residents faced numerous issues, Rogan said he understands why the area needed to have work done.
"The road was treacherous in some places and they're doing exactly what needs to be done," Rogan said. "If you think about that, it's just progress that needs to be made because Highway 55 is a major North-South route in Idaho."
Since Nov. 18, when the massive rockslide occurred, construction crews with ITD cleaned up and used the fallen rocks to build a "buttress," which is a wall of rocks around 20 feet tall and about 400 feet wide.
"It just took time," said Vince Trimboli, a spokesperson for ITD It's a very, very big project to undertake and we needed to take the time to build it and have our geotechnical experts go in there and assess it and for us to determine that it was safe."
Trimboli advised people traveling through should expect about 15-minute delays as crews do some additional clean-up and other construction activities for the winter. He added US-95 is still a good, alternate route for travel between Valley County and the Treasure Valley.
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