BMPO makes new recommendations after axing South Expressway proposal
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IDAHO FALLS — After hundreds of Bonneville County residents protested a potential, new South Expressway at an October public open house, the Bonneville Metropolitan Planning Organization (BMPO) has refined its future traffic planning proposal to focus on expanding 65th South into an on-alignment expressway or strategic arterial and 81st South into a strategic arterial.
“The biggest change is we’re no longer recommending considering an off-alignment expressway south of 65th,” said DKS traffic planning lead Aaron Berger.
RELATED | Hundreds oppose proposed South Expressway at open house
Instead, BMPO recommends building high-capacity roads on existing thoroughfares — first on 65th South and eventually on 81st South as growth continues.
They also advise working with Bingham County to conduct a study to “identify a planning corridor for a future beltway system (a 50-year future facility).”
“This would be a much further south expressway-type corridor that could potentially route up through the foothills and kind of around the city,” Berger said.
The Bonneville County Metropolitan Planning Organization held four public presentations at the Bonneville County Fairground Event Center Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon to unveil the updated plan and receive public feedback.
BMPO coordinates transportation planning between the cities of Ammon, Idaho Falls, Iona, Ucon; Bonneville County and the Idaho Transportation Department.
RELATED | BMPO hosting two additional meetings for future traffic planning on Tuesday and Wednesday
More than 100 residents attended Tuesday night to view the presentation and participate in an open question-and-answer forum.
“This was our opportunity to present how their feedback was received, how it has changed our recommendations, and then walk them through what’s next,” Berger said.
He emphasized that the study’s recommendations are “not binding.”
“The outcome of this study need to be adopted by the member jurisdictions within BMPO,” he said. “BMPO can only make the recommendation and leave it. That’s as far as they can go.”
An expressway or strategic arterial on 65th South
If the changes are approved for a high-capacity roadway, 65th South would be expanded either into an on-alignment expressway or an on-alignment strategic arterial from Interstate-15 to 45th East (Crowley Road), Berger said.
65th South is “already classified as a principal arterial on a beltway with truck and auto priority,” he stated.
An expressway is similar to U.S. Highway 20, a “highway/arterial road for high-speed traffic with limited or no access to adjacent property and few or no intersecting roadways,” Berger explained.
“In town, access conditions consist of interchanges/ grade separations, while in rural settings, more at-grade connections are utilized because of lower traffic,” Berger said.
“Expressways can also be used to convert a facility to a freeway over time,” he said.
Strategic arterials, on the other hand, consist of five to seven lanes “with raised medians and ½ mile desired intersection spacing,” similar to Hitt Road near the 17th Street intersection.
“The idea (is) being able to facilitate better through traffic and increase your capacity without necessarily adding more lanes,” Berger said.
The right of way for the expressway is a maximum of 200 feet, which can be narrowed depending on the type of median adopted. Strategic arterials generally require about 120 feet, Berger stated, but concessions can be made, depending on the design.
A strategic arterial could be funded and constructed by 2050, but would likely already be reaching its capacity at that point.
At this stage, the study’s goal is to “identify corridor conservation techniques to preserve right of ways and protect expanded and/or new roadways from being precluded by incoming development.”
The ultimate decision to develop either an on-alignment expressway or a strategic arterial on 65th South would not be made until an additional study is performed.
“A detailed study looking at alternatives, cost benefit, property impacts, access impacts – much more detail than we do in this level of a planning stage — would be the next step,” Berger explained.
The project would move forward only if the necessary growth triggers are reached. It would also be constructed in phases.
Construction of a strategic arterial on 81st South would take place further down the line.
“All it’s saying is once that area develops, which is very far south, make sure you hold your right-of-way lines at a hundred feet essentially,” he said. “So that’s low impact.”
If the plan moves forward, the public will have additional opportunities to provide public comment about the full design of the high-capacity roadways, he said.
Public response
Bonneville County residents asked detailed questions about growth projections, residential and commercial zoning along 65th South, and the right of way acquisition process following the presentation.
Erin Bingham said these solutions to address traffic are arriving too late in the game – long after homes and subdivisions have already been approved along these corridors.
“It seems like we just keep kicking the can down the road, and we’re 10 (or) 20 years too late in these proposals,” she said. “How do we get some kind of a plan, that then becomes protected so that people aren’t then saying, ‘You’re taking out my house?’ because I feel like we are constantly a day late and a dollar short.”
Others spoke of the need to protect agricultural property and zoning, reduce urban sprawl, provide parks in the county and maintain civility throughout this planning process.
The Bonneville Metropolitan Planning Organization is continuing to accept public comments at bmpo.org.
The full question and answer session from the first presentation is included in the video at the top of this page.
Growing pains
Bonneville County’s population is expected to grow 80% to 90% in the next 25 years, causing “82% more traffic delay per trip systemwide by 2050,” according to BMPO’s August 2024 High-Capacity Roadway study.
The area population is expected to increase from 118,477 people and 40,759 households in 2022 to 218,412 residents and 74,946 households by 2050, the study states.
Most of that expansion is expected to the south around the perimeters of Idaho Falls and Ammon.
“The City Council’s philosophy right now, … we are really trying to avoid sprawl,” Burtenshaw said. Sometimes… All of that infill that is happening within the City of Idaho Falls,”
The BMPO Policy Committee is charged with preparing traffic infrastructure for that growth.
It is composed mainly of local elected leaders — including Chairwoman Lisa Burtenshaw, Vice Chairman Jim Freeman, Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper, Idaho Falls City Councilman John Radford, Ammon City Councilman Jeff Fullmer, Bonneville County Commissioner Jon Walker, Iona Mayor Dan Gubler, Ucon City Councilman Chris Paolini and Idaho Transportation Department representative Bryan Young.
“The jurisdictions have worked really well together,” Burtenshaw said. “There has been a lot of collaboration in this process to bring this study forward and then for each jurisdiction to eventually adopt their part of the plan.”
Community leaders and project engineers thanked everyone who participated and provided comments.
“It’s really good to see the community this invested in the planning process,” Berger said. “(We) don’t get to see this level of investment for something this far in advance of a future project very often.”
