Idaho Falls road construction updates

Construction in Idaho Falls is well underway, especially on 17th St. once you get close to the Hitt Rd. intersection.

There are three phases the city of Idaho Falls is hoping to get done by the end of this month.

“It’s really kind of three projects in one, really. Safety improvements along 25th East, intersection capacity and pavement maintenance on 17th Street,” the city of Idaho Falls’ city engineer, Kent Fugal, said.

The city is adding left and right turn lanes to help the flow of traffic on Hitt Rd.

“That will greatly increase the capacity of the intersection, we won’t have to dedicate as much time of the green-time in the signal cycle to those left turns, because we’ll get more traffic into two lanes,” Fugal said.
In the future, the Woodruff Avenue intersection may be added to the project list. The city said this 17th St. intersection needs improvements as well.

“The bottom line is, we need more capacity at that intersection. Now what that final product will look like — at this point I can’t tell you, because it is a bit of a process. There’s quite a bit of lead-time to get a project actually under construction. And we’re approximately five years out from construction on that project, Fugal said.

Thursday night, the Idaho Falls City Council will vote on approving to move forward on the Woodruff Avenue project. Once approved, they can start surveying the area and see what needs to be improved.