Submitted by Ken Watts
A Super 2 highway (alternating passing lanes) provides many benefits. The Super 2 improves mobility by allowing faster traffic to pass slower moving vehicles on regular intervals. Congestion is also reduced for the same reason. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, safety is improved by about 50% over conventional 2-lane highway designs. The economy of the area is not destroyed by highways that bypass the businesses. The Super 2 highway design totally addresses the, mobility, safety, and economics, mission of the Idaho Transportation Department. JUB Engineers says that a Super 2 highway will serve the Island Park area until 2042 and beyond, at a MUCH lower cost than a four lane, high speed, limited access freeway. JUB engineers has already established (prioritized) the order in which the new passing lanes should be built. The new passing lanes could likely be built using a categorical exclusion in the NEPA process and save a vast sum of money and possibly avoid extremely expensive litigation. But the real beauty of a Super 2 highway design is realized when you consider environmental and conservation issues. Island Park is a very sensitive environmental and conservation area. It is the headwaters of the Snake River Aquifer and is home to abundant wildlife. The forests and meadows provide for pristine water and air and extremely valuable habitat for wildlife. They should be protected and should not be sacrificed for a FREEWAY that serves out of state tourists and truckers primarily! When wetlands are encountered it is possible to just keep the highway within the current footprint and not create a bypass that destroys the environment. When rivers are encountered, again, just stay within the existing footprint of the highway. There is no need to build very expensive new bridges and risk destroying the pristine waters and the world class fishery. Bypasses will destroy forests and wildlife habitat. There is no need for this destruction. Building a 4-lane freeway will cause incredible pollution from fossil fuels used in the construction process and the dust and sediment that is created. The pollution will be 7 to 10 times more than building passing lanes. A Super 2 highway design for US 20, in Island Park, is a winner on all fronts. Add a few stop lights and all the left turn anxiety is gone and safety if greatly improved. It won’t be long before Yellowstone National Park sets daily quotas for entry. That will stop traffic growth in its tracks! To my conservation and environmental friends, it is time for you to come out of the basement and take a stand on US 20. What do you really stand for? Tell the people of Island Park.
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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
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