Jenna Crowe
Staff Writer
Pocatello streets are getting a makeover with the redesign of a few key intersections throughout town.
The intersections mentioned in this article will be or have recently been redesigned because of a safety hazard or because this intersection was overly-congested.
There are two main intersections that the engineering department is working on: the intersection between Benton and 2nd and the intersection involving Alameda, Hiline and Jefferson.
The first intersection was finished at the end of October. This project involved restricting the movement of the cars with the use of a median in the road with a goal of decreasing the number of car accidents.
“You can’t go straight across anymore,” Merril Quayle, a public works engineer on the 2nd and Benton project, said. “You also can’t make any left-hand turns from 2nd to Benton.”
The next project involves the intersection between Hiline, Jefferson and Alameda. Consultants have presented plans for this intersection in the past, but the plans were never approved mainly because of the increase in cost. Quayle is currently considering a more simplistic design to streamline the congested intersection.
“When we finish depends on the design and when it gets approved, along with the budget,” Quayle said.
He hopes to have this intersection completed within the next year, but he will have a more realistic timeline once the plans are approved by City Council. Plans for this intersection are currently in the design review portion of the process and Quayle hopes to have the plans in front of City Council within the next few months.
The third intersection to be redesigned is the intersection of Quinn and Hawthorne.
According to Quayle, another Public Works engineer is in charge of the project and has already met with consultants about how to best design the intersection to prevent congestion. A new traffic signal has been proposed. This specific intersection has been a Public Works project for two years and was just made a 2018 project.
“There aren’t any detours planned yet,” Quayle said. “There will probably be limited traffic detours because we try best to accommodate residents and businesses.”
At this time Quayle does not see a need for a complete shutdown of intersections.
Quayle recommends students check the city’s website for traffic alerts during construction. The traffic alert feature offered by the city will let citizens know where detours and ongoing construction throughout town are located.
