In the last two editorials, Ken’s Korner examined who is pushing the US 20 FREEWAY from Ashton to SH 87. In the first editorial, the evidence seemed to indicate that the Federal Highways Administration was not pushing this FREEWAY but the Idaho Transportation Department (District 6) was pushing for the FREEWAY. In the second editorial, the evidence showed that the Governor recognizes the growth in Idaho and the need for highway improvements and upgrades. There was no definitive evidence that the Governor is pushing for a FREEWAY in the island Park Caldera. However, in a campaign stop in Ashton last spring, he did indicate a four lane would be coming. There was no clarification if he was referring to US 20 Chester to Ashton or Ashton to SH 87. This week we will examine what the ITD leadership says about US 20 Ashton to SH 87.
The new Chief Operations Officer for ITD is Dan McElhinney. He came to Idaho in 2020 from California where he was employed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). At an ITD Board meeting on February 18, 2021, Mr. McElhinney provided the following information to the Board: “While District Engineers have discussed corridors and individual project needs with their respective Board Members, the purpose of this workshop is to provide the board with a statewide overview of the identified safety and capacity needs and to present mitigation strategies for each corridor or project.” US 20 Ashton to SH 87 is part of a corridor. At a Board meeting on January 21, 2021, the notes include the following statements: “in an effort to improve safety, he (Jason Minzghor, ITD District 6) is requesting Board Unallocated funds to install rumble strips from milepost 363.3 to 406.30 and to widen the pavement markings from 4” to 6” lines………. “Member Hoff acknowledged the safety concerns on this highway and expressed support for this project. Chief Operations Officer Dan McElhinney added that this is a short term solution. Ideally the highway should be widened to four lanes.” The notes indicate the Mr. McElhinney has already made a decision that US 20 Ashton to SH87 “should be widened to four lanes”. This is referred to as “pre-decisional”. In other words, ITD has already decided on the solution before the National Environmental Policy Act process begins and even before the Planning and Environment Linkages process began. Many in Island Park, who attended the public meetings, suspected that ITD had already made a decision to support only a four lane FREEWAY. “The National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to undertake an assessment of the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions.” “NEPA: Generally, a preferred alternative (PA) is not identified until after the draft environmental document (DED) has circulated and public comments have been taken into account. However, when a proposed PA has been identified at the DED stage, it must be disclosed.” ITD should have disclosed to the public and the stakeholders that they already had a preferred alternative. ITD should have also disclosed to the public that they had a two lane alternative, developed by JUB Engineers, which met the purpose and need to 2042 and beyond. Over $3M of taxpayer money was spent on this alternative development. Who is pushing for the FREEWAY? ITD management certainly is!
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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
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