Update: ITD announces more closures at this busy Meridian interchange
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- ITD begins $2M hot chip-seal project on Meridian Road after costly failure on Chinden Blvd
- Nighttime lane closures, reduced speeds, intermittent detours expected through late summer
- Projected 55% traffic growth over next 25 years drives long-term widening, extension plans
Update (Aug. 8, 2025): The Idaho Transportation Department has announced additional ramp closures at the I-84/Meridian Road interchange spanning Saturday, Aug. 9, to Friday, Aug. 15.
Closures on Saturday and Sunday will take place from midnight to 5 a.m., while closures from Monday through Friday will take place from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The ramps will be closed in an alternating fashion. Northbound ramps will be closed Saturday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, while southbound ramps will close Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Below is the original story, published July. 23, 2025, under the headline, ”ITD has big plans for this Meridian highway. But first, chip-sealing and detours.”
For the next several weeks, drivers can expect nighttime lane and speed reductions on nearly five miles of an increasingly busy highway in Kuna and South Meridian.
Crews with the Idaho Transportation Department started applying hot chip seal to Meridian Road, also known as Idaho 69, on Monday evening, according to the department. The goal is to “improve and extend” the roadway’s life, an ITD spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman.
The chip-sealing started near the intersection of Meridian and Kuna roads in Kuna and will extend north to the Interstate-84/Meridian Road interchange, a news release said. Work will take place from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., according to an ITD project page, and at least one lane will remain open in each direction.
The work is expected to conclude by late summer, though an exact timeline is unknown, department spokesperson John Tomlinson said by email.
“This is all dependent on weather, how much work is done each night by the crews, and materials,” Tomlinson said.
Meridian Road’s on- and off-ramps at the I-84 interchange are expected to be closed “for a few nights,” said the project page, but Tomlinson said dates for those closures are also unknown.
“Roadside message boards will provide drivers with advance notice,” of ramp closures, the release said. Detours would be in place.
The work is expected to cost $2 million, Tomlinson said.
New technique previously failed on Chinden Blvd.
The hot chip-sealing technique, which ITD first launched in 2024, involves placing hot asphalt atop the roadway and then sealing it with a surface layer of gravel and hot oil to shore up cracks and prevent potholes.
It’s similar to traditional chip-sealing but uses hotter asphalt — about 300 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 150 — and involves precoating the surface layer with hot oil. This allows crews to work at night and for the surface to be ready for cars within 30 minutes, according to ITD. Traditional chip seal must be placed during the hot daylight hours of the summer and takes 24 hours to cure.
ITD used the new technique on a section of Chinden Boulevard in 2024, but it failed, causing complaints of loose gravel and cracked windshields. The department started the $3.7-million process of resurfacing it in June. It’s expected to wrap up the work, which extends from Glenwood Street in Garden City to Linder Road in Eagle, in late July.
The department is contracting with North Dakota construction company Knife River to chip-seal Meridian Road, Tomlinson said. Knife River applied the failed chip seal to Chinden in 2024.
On both highways where work is taking place, ITD warns drivers of the “extremely hot” oil and urges them “to use extra caution” and “keep their distance from paving equipment,” according to the department’s release.
On Meridian Road, drivers can also expect:
- Shifting traffic patterns and flaggers directing traffic.
- Reduced speed limits to 35 miles per hour.
- Access to residents and businesses to remain open.
Another Eagle Road? ITD focuses on Idaho 69 as traffic grows
Rapid growth in South Meridian and Kuna have placed increased demand — and focus — on the north-south highway. ITD anticipates a 55% rise in traffic along Meridian Road over the next 25 years and announced in April that it seeks to widen the highway, in addition to future plans to extend it further south.
An ITD project fact sheet says the population within a 2-mile radius of the highway is expected to grow to just over 92,000 people by 2050, resulting in a 108% increase in traffic on the section between Overland and Victory roads just south of the interstate. Traffic at the highway’s now-southern terminus, an east-west stub between Kuna Road and Orchard Avenue, is expected to decrease 29%, thanks to the future extension.
The highway was previously widened in 1991 and 2001, and additional widening from Overland to Orchard would, the fact sheet says, create “a highway for the next 20 years.”
Major developments expected to change the face of the Meridian-Kuna border include Brighton Corp.’s Pinnacle development, an 800-acre, 2,000-home master planned community in South Meridian that is slowly but surely making its way through city approvals and, piece by piece, getting built. The development centers on the intersection of Locust Grove and Lake Hazel roads, but a major commercial component — expected to be anchored by a Costco — is planned along Meridian Road.
The plans have caused some trepidation about turning the highway into “another Eagle Road,” said City Council Member Doug Taylor at a January hearing where the commercial development was approved. Eagle Road, another major north-south route in the Valley, is one of the busiest roads in the state.
Brighton representatives at the hearing said the developer was working “intimately” with ITD to plan for traffic circulation at the commercial development and was considering entering into a Sales Tax Anticipated Revenue, or STAR, agreement to front the cost of certain roadway improvements to be later reimbursed.
In his State of the City address in June, Meridian Mayor Robert Simison said Meridian Road would be widened between Victory and Columbia roads as part of a STAR agreement.
The Idaho 16 extension is also expected to alleviate some traffic on Meridian Road.
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
