BOISE, Idaho — Crews with the Idaho Transportation Department are resuming work on State Highway 55 in Valley County on Monday, April 11.
Spring construction on the highway will fully close both lanes, Monday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through late May. Outside of those hours, the road will be open to one-way alternating traffic with 15-minute delays while crews work.
The work between Smiths Ferry and the Rainbow Bridge began in September 2020, and is expected to be completed in late fall of 2022, according to ITD. Construction had to be suspended during the winter.
The project will widen shoulders, minimize curves in the roadway and install guardrails in some sections.
During 2021, two rockslides in the project area closed the highway for about three weeks, and another smaller slide in January 2022 closed the highway for a few days. Those slides raised safety questions. ITD engineering manager Jason Brinkman said the department is going into this spring with lessons learned from those events.
"We have spent the past winter working with geotechnical experts and the project team to change designs based on new information gathered after studying the areas where slides occurred," Brinkman said.
To date, crews have removed over 160,000 cubic yards of materials in the project area.
The spring schedule is anticipated to continue through late May. More information about the Smiths Ferry project is on the ITD website.
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