Major north-south road near Boise is being widened. Will it affect your commute?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- ACHD will widen Linder Road to five lanes and add a roundabout at Floating Feather Road.
- Phase 1 work will involve closures within a mile-long segment of the road in Eagle.
- Construction will span a year and is hoped to alleviate congestion in the growing area.
Rapid development is driving changes to a popular north-south thoroughfare in the Treasure Valley.
A busy section of Linder Road in Eagle — lined by two schools and hundreds of homes — is set to close as early as Tuesday, Nov. 18, for the start of what’s expected to be a year of construction.
The more than $10 million project, headed by the Ada County Highway District, will involve widening Linder from two to five lanes including a center turn lane between Idaho 44 and Floating Feather Road.
ACHD also plans to put in a roundabout at Linder and Floating Feather, an intersection where traffic now often backs up, especially during peak commute times and school drop-off and pick-up hours, according to EJ Vitta, the highway district’s project manager for the work.
“It’s really just to help speed up the flow,” Vitta said in a phone interview with the Idaho Statesman. “Right now … depending on what leg you’re at and the hour of the day, you’re going to be waiting quite some time just to get past it.”
The roundabout is expected to “push passing traffic” along more quickly, Vitta said, while the added lanes would also help accommodate growth-related traffic.
“They’re just dealing with so much congestion,” he said.
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Construction, closures coming to Linder Road in 4 phases
But before drivers can sail smoothly along Linder to points north, there are going to be some bumps in the road.
Construction is expected to begin in November on the nearly 1-mile segment of Linder north of State Street. The exact start will depend on a private construction project along Palmer Lane, which is using Linder as a detour, according to ACHD.
As part of the first phase, Linder will close completely from Rosslare Court to Saguaro Drive for canal bridge construction, while only local access will be allowed further north and south in the project area, between State and Floating Feather.
Lane restrictions will be in place at the Floating Feather intersection and south along Linder to Briar Rock Drive for culvert construction.
Those closures and restrictions are expected to take place until early spring.
Local traffic including to the schools along Linder is expected to be “pretty straightforward” during the first phase, Vitta said. Drivers can access the Galileo STEM Academy from the north and North Star Charter School from the north or west, according to ACHD presentation materials for an open house on Nov. 6.
Traffic passing through Linder would have to detour east to Park Lane, Vitta said.
Vitta also anticipates utility work while the Phase 1 “hard closure” is in place.
According to Vitta, ACHD hopes to complete the irrigation work before water returns to the canals in March.
“There’s almost a clock right now that we’re against, and (we’re) trying to make sure we get all this done before the water gets turned back on,” he said.
After that, the hard closure will lift, and road work will start on the lane additions, Vitta said. First, ACHD expects to close the east side of Linder for widening, shifting traffic to the west. Then, the highway district will do the reverse.
Those two phases are expected to take place from spring to fall 2026, with one lane of traffic remaining open in each direction. Last, in late fall, ACHD will build the roundabout at Floating Feather.
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The work comes amid other nearby closures, including work along Idaho 16.
“We’re not going to just sit back and just kind of let this go,” Vitta said. ACHD plans to monitor the project and make “real-time” adjustments to traffic control or signal-timing as needed, he said.
“Of course, construction being construction, we’re not going to say that it’s going to get better during construction, because that’s not true, but we’re going to try to monitor and make sure that we take action when we’re able to help,” he said.
Linder a focus further south as development continues
Linder has been a development hot spot in recent years as the Treasure Valley has continued to grow, nearing 850,000 people this year, according to the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho.
Further north of where Linder dead-ends at Homer Road, thousands of homes are in the works in the Valnova subdivision. But according to Vitta, ACHD has no plans to widen Linder north of Floating Feather.
“It’s not on in the cards right now,” he said.
ACHD’s next priority on Linder is south from State Street to Chinden Boulevard, Vitta said. Plans for that segment are in design, he said.
This story was originally published November 14, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
