ACHD's Road Wizard Sunday, July 21, 2019

In 2007, Valley Regional Transit (VRT) and the Ada County Highway District (ACHD) created an agreement called the Cooperative Government Agreement for Transit Structures. This agreement allows VRT to place and maintain transit structures, including bus benches, in the public right-of-way and to display advertising on these structures. As an allowed use, this advertising is not in violation of Section 5104.3.5.7 of the ACHD Policy Manual, which states "Signs shall not be located on any sidewalk, traffic median, island, boulevard strip, or landscape area between the curb and the separated sidewalk".

This is, unfortunately, not a concise answer. The adjacent property owner is responsible for maintaining weeds up to the back of the curb, which includes the sidewalk area. Many medians are the responsibility of ACHD, but others have a license agreement with homeowner associations or the cities to be maintained. The Broadway Avenue median that you mentioned would belong to the Idaho Transportation Department since the freeway and that portion of Broadway Avenue (State Highway 20) is part of their right-of-way.

This question is not an easy answer. The roads within Ada County are no different than those across the country. ACHD is facing an increase in traffic, aging infrastructure, and limited funding. Projects that occur within the community are decided by elected officials, ACHD staff, partner agencies and the public.

Of all the projects happening in the valley, only a portion belong to ACHD. Many projects are the responsibility of utility companies such as sewer, gas, water, power, telephone, cable, and fiber to name a few. Traffic impacts from developer-driven projects, as well as detours and restrictions from various community events also play a role in the county's road construction scene.

All projects have to be done in a specific order. Underground work first, followed by gravel placement, concrete, and then finally paving. The notion of working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week has to be juggled with the actual costs to the entity and is simply not always feasible. Nighttime noise is a major consideration for projects within certain areas. In this job market, finding qualified workers can be difficult. Redirecting traffic to keep at least some of the flow going to have less impact on traffic can also be challenging on a 24-hour basis. And finally, not everyone wishes to work weekends and nights.

Your question is short, but the answer is long, so I leave you with this: Throwing all resources at one project sounds good in theory, but it doesn't always make things better.