Repair project on track
By Jennifer Colton - Argus Observer
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 10:55 AM PDT
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| During the next two years, work will begin on two projects to enhance the stretch of U.S. Highway 30 through downtown New Plymouth. Phase one of the city’s U.S. Highway 30 Downtown Enhancement project is slated for 2008 and will replace curb, gutter, sidewalk and lighting, and an Idaho Transportation Department project to repave the highway along city limits will begin in 2009. |
New Plymouth - The stretch of U.S. Highway 30 through New Plymouth will be repaired during fiscal year 2009 to coincide with New Plymouth’s downtown enhancement project.
During the regular New Plymouth City Council meeting Monday, Mayor Scott Moscrip discussed a letter he received from the Idaho Transportation Department that slated the New Plymouth project for fiscal year 2009.
“Basically, we sent in a fairly strongly worded e-mail to the governor’s office explaining that we were under the impression that the road was going to be repaired, and that’s why we applied for the downtown development grant,” he said, adding the governor’s office then contacted ITD officials.
“ITD came back and said, ‘You’re right.’” Moscrip said.
In December, the city was awarded a grant for just under $500,000 for a project to replace curb, gutter, sidewalks and lighting on the areas of the highway running through downtown. The city will put up a $49,000 match for phase one of the project that will cover the span from Elm Street to either Maple Street or Canal Street, depending on funding and is scheduled for completion in 2008.
As of December, the New Plymouth ITD repaving work had been pushed back to 2010 and was then postponed indefinitely because of funding, ITD Public Affairs Representative Adam Rush said.
“I was wondering if we’d fallen into a black hole,” Moscrip said. “But it was positive to get word back from their office.”
An ITD project completed in May repaved and resurfaced the stretch of U.S. Highway 30 from the New Plymouth city limits through the intersection with U.S. Highway 95, and the second project will connect the edge of the 2007 project through to the intersection with Idaho Highway 72, Moscrip said.
The ITD communication also requested the city use part of a second state grant — the Safe Route to Schools grant — to make the portion of the highway on the school route ADA accessible.
In other business, city engineer Andy Gehrke, Holladay Engineering, approached the council with a revised schedule for the Arsenic Project Engineering Report.
“They (Idaho Department of Environmental Quality) have requested that I change a couple of the compliance dates on the project schedule to add in a design report submittal that goes in with the design plans,” Gehrke said. “The report that we did is a general report, and they want one that goes into detail like ‘These are the pumps we’re using.’”
The addition will push everything scheduled from the planning section back two months, he said, but the project will still be well within the required guidelines.
“We’re still waiting on the environmental part of the project review,” Gehrke said. “So basically, on the tech side, they’ll approve the report contingent on the approval of the environmental report.”
The council also approved a design for the stamped concrete in the U.S. Highway 30 project and set a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6.
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