Submitted by Ken Watts
The people of Fremont County were told that the US 20 Ashton to Island Park Highway project “public meetings” would be postponed for “a few months”. Apparently a few months is 2 months. Who knew! Just because the meetings are delayed does not mean the project is being delayed. In fact, an Idaho Transportation Department contractor was apparently flying a drone over private property at Ashton Hills Estates. Now is the time to write the decision makers and tell them you want a real deal in the project so that the community has time to develop its own solutions. ITD should not hold another public meeting until property owner’s return to Island Park in the spring. A list of people to write to follows. Bob Hoff, the ITD Board, District 6 representative, is the most important person to write to now. Tell him you want a real project pause.
0 Comments
Submitted by Ken Watts On Friday, October 14, 2022, the Island Park Preservation Coalition hosted the second community meeting on the design of US Highway 20 from Ashton to SH 87 (See PowerPoint presentation in previous post). The meeting was attended by about 70 people. You may recall that the first community meeting on US 20 was held in May of 2022. In that meeting, there was unanimous opposition to a four lane, high speed, limited access freeway in the Island Park Caldera. The attendees supported a super 2 highway design with alternating passing lanes, wider lanes, wider shoulders, etc. The Idaho Transportation Department was only advancing freeway alternatives. This angered many people in the community and was unacceptable.
ITD had planned a forth public meeting in September to advance their freeway concepts. Appeals by the community, to leaders at many state and local levels, resulted in the project being “paused”. ITD said the “pause” would be for several months. Perhaps you received a postcard in the mail stating this. This “pause” would allow the community to develop a “community solution” for the highway design. Therefore the IPPC hosted a second meeting to plan the community solution that could be advanced to decision makers. A committee was formed to look at current improvements like the tree cut back, the highway design, intersection design, and other features. There were many volunteers. This is a large undertaking by the community, if it is done right, and is properly documented, referenced, and reviewed. The proposal, done right, can be done by the spring of 2023. Some of the super 2 design work has already been done by ITD contractors at a cost of over $3.2M. The ITD funded JUB Engineers study is a great starting point for the community proposal. There is a problem, however. At the community meeting last Friday, ITD said they were planning a public meeting in December 2022. This is NOT the “several” month “pause” that ITD promised in their postcard to the public. This is UNACCEPTABLE! It is also DISINGENUOUS! Our elected representatives must stop this travesty. You should write your elected representatives and voice your displeasure. More importantly, write to the members of the ITD Board. They control the money. At the end of the PowerPoint in the previous post there are individuals to contact requesting ITD extend its meeting until May, 2023. Contacting the ITD Board members is best. A photo of the meeting follows. PURPOSE • Status: The PEL has been paused. • Take advantage of the pause. • Develop a community solution for the US 20 Ashton to SH 87 highway design. • A solution the majority can support. • Plan a path forward for the community solution. CURRENT/PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS • stripes • Improved signage • Improved highway paint/turning arrows • Solar lighting at wildlife areas • Message boards warning of hazardsTree cut back – continue north to the flats • Shoulder rumble strips • Center rumble strips • Widening the shoulders • Wider • Speed limits: reduced and consistent? • EMBRACE THESE IMPROVEMENTS? SUPER 2 HIGHWAY • Unanimous Support at Community Meeting #1 • Used In Many States • 4 ITD Studies • DKS & Associates - 2008 • Kittelson & Associates - 2016 • JUB Engineers $3.5M, 2020 - Prioritize passing lanes (JUB did this, Sheep Creek to Mack’s Inn only) • BYU Study – Ashton Hills Estates - 2021 • Horrocks Engineers - 2022 • Features • Wide lanes • Wide shoulders • Alternating passing lanes • Reduce access • Much lower cost SUPER 2 PHOTO SUPER 2 HIGHWAY SAFETY The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety effectiveness of Super 2 highways in Texas. A before–after study was performed with the empirical Bayes (EB) method, which was superior to other methods because it could address the regression-to-the-mean bias. On the basis of potential study sites identified in seven districts (Paris, Childress, Corpus Christi, Austin, Wichita Falls, Yoakum, and Bryan) in Texas, four reference groups were considered by imposition of different restrictions. Negative binomial regression models were then used to develop safety performance functions for each reference group. From the model selection process, the most restricted reference group was selected for the final analysis. For roadway inventory and crash history data, 12 years (1997 to 2001 and 2003 to 2009) of data for Texas were examined. The analysis used fatal (K), incapacitating injury (A), non-incapacitating injury (B), and minor injury (C) crashes. Property-damage-only crashes were not included. The EB analyses were carried out on five corridors with about 53 centerline miles. The results showed that the installation of Super 2 highways led to statistically significant reductions in the incidence of crashes of 35% for crashes on segments only (KABC) and 42% for crashes on segments and at intersections (KABC) on the study corridors. These findings were consistent with those of previous studies of the safety of Super 2 corridors that showed improvements in safety with installation of passing lanes, even when traffic volumes were higher than those considered under previous guidance in Texas. INTERSECTIONS IMPROVEMENTS • Near term (1 to 2 years?) • Improvements can be incremental • Simple merge lanes • Simple de-acceleration lanes • Reduce access points • Frontage roads ELK CREEK INTERSECTION (longer term) MACK’S INTERSECTION ASHTON HILL SAFETY • South bound (down hill) congestion • Slow moving trucks • Add a mid-hill passing lane (west side)? • Must merge right at end of lane • Trucks stay right • Ashton Hills Estates access WILDLIFE • Idaho Legislature memorial opposing overpasses, underpasses, and fencing on US 20 in Fremont County – HJM 6 2019 • Advisory vote: 4 out 5 voters oppose overpasses, underpasses, and fencing on US 20 in Fremont County – November 2018 • 4-lanes is not an option for wildlife PATH FORWARD • REFINE THE COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS • SUB-COMMITTEE TO REFINE THE SOLUTIONS? • PREPARE A COMMUNITY PROPOSAL? • SEND TO? • PRESENT TO? • RESOLUTIONS: COUNTY AND CITY? • LEGISLATIVE MEMORIAL? CONTACTS
Most of you already know that the US 20 Ashton to SH 87 project has been paused for “now”. This is the result of efforts by elected officials from the state level to the local level. But make no mistake, these elected officials were strongly influenced by private citizens who spent hundreds of hours doing research, filing public information requests, filing Freedom of Information Act Requests, studying data, and providing vast amounts of information to elected officials and others. These private citizens and the Island Park news have provided a valuable service of informing the public about this questionable and expensive project. This is self-government at its best.
Now is the time for the public to provide a very clear and definitive statement to the Idaho Transportation Department regarding what they want for the future of this highway segment. The Island Park Preservation Coalition will host a second community meeting on October 14, 2022, at 6 PM, in the Island Park EMS Building, to gather input from the public and discuss the possible solutions. You will recall that in the first community meeting that the attendees voted to support a two lane “super 2” highway as opposed to the four lane freeway being advanced by ITD. A super 2 is sometimes called a 2+1 highway and includes wider lanes, wide shoulders, alternating passing lanes, open areas next to the highway, adjustments in access, and other enhancements. ITD funded (~$3.5M) JUB Engineers to study adding passing lanes to US 20 to improve the highway. JUB Engineers prioritized the location of the new passing lanes. The preliminary planning is done and has been paid for. A super 2 will serve the community for over 2 decades and probably longer. The community has already embraced the tree cutback, rumble strips, and wide shoulders along the entire highway segment. ITD is currently implementing these improvements. The community did not address the intersections, in Island Park, in any real detail in the first community meeting. ITD had provided sketches of the Island Park intersections in the past. Please bring your ideas for these intersections to the community meeting on October 14th. The goal of the community meeting is to provide comprehensive solutions, which the community backs, and take these solutions forward to decision makers. The community “absolutely” must not be viewed as complainers but rather as participants in the generation of solutions. Now is the time to get involved. This is especially true for local businesses that could be impacted. |
Making Sense of It All
This blog will help you make sense out of all the information on the website, how it affects IP, our history, and how efforts continue to put IP into various forms of conservation status. Archives
May 2023
Categories |