Road, parking lot improvements coming to Tautphaus Park

Tautphaus Park in Idaho Falls is getting some upgrades that will make it easier for visitors to get around.

Roads and parking lots throughout the park are being improved. Most of the roads are currently one-ways, making it difficult for park visitors to navigate.

“For being kind of one of the staple parks in our community, it’s a very tricky park to get through and to get from one side to another,” said PJ Holm, recreation superintendent for the Idaho Fall Parks and Recreation Department. “If you take the wrong turn you’re stuck on one-ways that take you all the way out of the park.”

The Idaho Falls Parks and Rec Department says the one-way roads will become two-way and more parking is being added. This construction is a small piece of a bigger Tautphaus Park master plan that includes the opening of the new Maeck Education Building. Road improvements are needed because the new center is being built at Rogers Drive off of Rollandet.

“Obviously, we realize that there’s some traffic issues getting in and out of the park, egress and ingress into the park,” Holm said. “And so we knew that there was something that we needed to get started on…fixing up the roadways a little bit because of that. So because we’re moving forward with the zoo and the zoo expansion, it’s time to start putting those improvements through in the rest of the park.”

These upgrades are just a few of those to come in the near future. Idaho Falls Parks and Rec is asking the public for input on what they would like to see in their parks.

“We’re hoping that the community as a whole would like to come out to these meetings and tell us what they’d like to see, tell us where they’d like to spend their tax dollars and how they’d like us to improve the park system as a whole throughout our community and how we can grow and build together,” Holm said.

The construction on the roads was delayed because of rain the past couple of days. Construction will continue over the next several weeks.