Submitted by Ken Watts
The next “public meeting” on the Idaho Transportation Department’s Ashton to SH-87 Junction project will be held on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, from 5-7 pm, at the Island Park EMS building. You should attend because the future of Island Park hangs in the balance. Luckily Ken’s Korner can provide information that will be useful as you prepare for the meeting. I told you I would keep you informed regarding a public records request, for information from the Idaho Transportation Department, pertaining to the down selection of design alternatives for US Highway 20, Ashton to SH 87. The matter had been referred to the Idaho Attorney General, Governor, and to the District 31 legislators. ITD complied with the public records request on May 10. One day after the meeting with the legislators and after the 10 day legal deadline. Why should you care? The information was requested so that it could be published in the Island Park News and so that YOU (the public) could be better informed and prepared prior to the next ITD public meeting on May 25. So what did the public records request reveal? The only design alternatives that ITD is considering are four lane, high speed, limited access alternatives for the ENTIRE section of highway from Ashton to SH-87. If you read the meeting notes, ITD and their contractors contend that four lanes are needed to achieve the level of service that they want for the highway. What is this conclusion based on? It is based on a totally bogus traffic study conducted by an ITD contractor. All of this was documented in a Ken’s Korner article on 3-17-22. The study used old traffic data, from the wrong month, applied fudge factors for the highest traffic months, did not cover the entire highway (North and South segments were left out), and then the contractor used a computer program to “predict” the level of service for the various highway segments. This computer program predicted speeds in Island Park that were totally unrealistic. For example the program predicted a 2021 travel speed, in Last Chance, of ~30 mph during the busiest travel months. Have you ever traveled through Last Chance at 30 mph! If you did, you would be on the grill of a semi and would receive many one finger salutes! So what should you do? Totally reject the traffic study and insist that ITD compile new data for the entire stretch of highway. No old data, fudge factors, or computer programs. Real measured data. Do not accept the contention that a 4 lane, high speed, limited access highway is necessary. Make ITD prove it and insist that a new, independent contractor do the study. No conflicts of interest. Island Park citizens participated in the previous two public meetings in good faith, ITD did not. ITD did not reveal that the alternatives would all be for a four lane, high speed, limited access highway. ITD had a bogus traffic study in the works, which concluded that four lanes were needed, but they did not share this with the public. Deception? You decide! The good people of Island Park are not “hayseeds” and certainly are not stupid. They do their homework.
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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
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