5 miles of a busy Meridian road may be widened — again — as traffic keeps rising
The Idaho Transportation Department plans to widen Meridian Road in anticipation of a 55% increase in traffic over the next 25 years.
According to a news release announcing the plans, ITD wants to widen the road, also known as Idaho 69, from Overland Road in Meridian south to Orchard Avenue in Kuna.
Overland is just south of Idaho 69’s northern terminus at Interstate 84; the rest of Meridian Road to the north is owned by the Ada County Highway District. At its southern end, the state highway turns west off Meridian Road at Kuna Road and onto East Avalon Street for less than three blocks before ending at Orchard.
The state plans to widen the highway to seven lanes from five from Overland all the way to Kuna Road, and to five lanes from three between Kuna Road to Orchard.
ITD would also install a raised median with access possible at 1-mile and half-mile intersections. The rest of the corridor would be right-in and right-out only.
“The proposed vision of the corridor will accommodate motorized and nonmotorized users,” said ITD project manager Mark Wasdahl in the release.
Nonmotorized uses will be incorporated via a 10-foot multi-use pathway on either side of the road.
Population growth to necessitate widening
The road was widened to four lanes south to Avalon in 1991 and 2001. According to an ITD fact sheet, those improvements were expected to handle demand through 2022. The department initiated a traffic study in 2019 to look ahead to the next 20 years.
The population within a 2-mile radius of the highway is expected to grow by 55% in the next 25 years to just over 92,000 people by 2050, the fact-sheet says. That’s expected to translate to a 108% increase in traffic on the northern section between Overland and Victory roads, just south of the interstate.
Traffic on the east-west stub ending at Orchard Avenue is expected to decrease 29%, thanks to ITD’s future plans to extend Meridian Road further south.
“The Idaho Transportation Board is working on an agreement to build improvements through private development funding,” a project fact sheet says.
Sophia Miraglio, a spokesperson for the department, did not immediately respond to the Idaho Statesman’s request for comment.
Learn more and have your say
ITD seeks feedback on the proposal from April 7 to 21. The department hopes to finalize the proposed “vision” by this summer, and would then begin identifying funding for design and construction.
Comments may be submitted via the online meeting site from now through Monday, April 21. The site is at https://itdprojects.idaho.gov/pages/id69corridor
Or you can call (208) 377-9688 or email Amber@RBCI.net. A member of the project team will provide other resources to participate, ITD said.
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 6:05 PM.
