Weary from road construction on State Street? Good news: Work on this section just ended
The road construction cones and barriers have disappeared along State Street at Collister Drive, ending an 11-month project meant to improve safety for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Good riddance, said Trena Chipman, a 14-year employee at On the Fly Gas Mart, located on the northeast corner of the intersection.
The cones and blocked-off lanes had made it hard for customers to get in and out of the parking lot. Many kept going, stopping at one of the other convenience stores down the block, she said.
“We haven’t gotten all the business back, but it’s coming back,” Chipman said in an interview at the store Friday, one week after the work ended.
Owner Mike Zehner said he lost more than $1.1 million in sales, not including October. “That’s a chunk of change,” Zehner said by phone.
It was understandable that lots of his customers would rather go somewhere else rather than fight getting through the construction and waiting for a break in traffic to get back on State Street, he said.
“A convenience store is made for convenience,” Zehner said. “We weren’t very convenient.”
The $11.6 million project by the Ada County Highway District relocated the southern end of Collister Drive 240 feet west to make it perpendicular to State Street and improve sight lines. Curbs were added, along with new sidewalks. The highway district celebrated the completion Friday.
“Collister came in at an angle, and it wasn’t a very safe or efficient intersection,” Rebecca Arnold, president of the highway district commission, during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “It has been realigned to come in at a T, and we’ve added safety improvements, pedestrian improvements, crosswalks and bike lanes, so it’s a much safer intersection.”
Previously, there were no curbs to limit where cars were coming in and out of the west side of Collister Center.
“It was kind of a free-for-all,” said Arnold, who is running for Boise mayor. “It works much better if you have defined access points and pedestrians. Bicyclists and motorists all know where they’re supposed to be.”
The road construction had little impact on sales at Caffeina, a coffee shop located behind On the Fly, manager Molly Ellis said.
“A lot of our regulars found a way around the construction,” Ellis said. “Still, people told us it was frustrating.”
Moving Collister Drive farther west provides the shopping center with an additional access road on the side of Caffeina and On the Fly. That makes it easier for cars coming into the shopping center from Collister, and it also provides several extra parking spaces, Ellis said.
“I think it’s going to be much better in the long run,” she said.
Barbara Collum, 75, who lives in the nearby Samaritan Village Apartments, said the changes are an improvement.
“The flow is much better now,” she said.
Noise was not a problem, she said, and contractors were friendly and answered her questions.
Some drivers through the neighborhood got mad and ran over the safety cones, she said. She and her neighbors just shrugged their shoulders.
“We’re old,” Collum said, laughing. “We’re inconvenienced all the time.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 3:26 PM.
