Work to resume on Idaho 55 in Smiths Ferry area: delays next week, closures in April
Drivers should expect traffic delays and temporary closures on Idaho 55 near Smiths Ferry next week.
The Idaho Transportation Department announced that construction work will resume on the road between Smiths Ferry and Rainbow Bridge. Beginning Monday, March 14, drivers should expect to see a single-lane road with alternating traffic flow, and 15-minute delays.
The same strip of highway — a busy, popular route for traveling from the Boise area to McCall and Cascade — will see temporary closures next month, with the department saying it would close the road from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday starting in mid-April. There are no exact dates yet.
“We are going into spring with lessons learned from last year,” Jason Brinkman, ITD engineering manager, said in a news release. “We have spent the past winter working with geotechnical experts and the project team to change designs based on new information gathered after studying the areas where slides occurred.”
There were three rockslides in the construction area between March 2021 and January this year. The slides forced closure of the road for about three weeks each of the first two times.
Crews have removed over 160,000 cubic yards of materials in the project area so far, according to the news release.
The department has been working on a project in the area since September 2020, and it is expected to be completed this fall.
Updates on the ongoing situation can be found at itdprojects.org/id55smithsferry.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 3:09 PM.
