Dual-county project along St. Joe
Courtesy image This image shows the stretch of the St. Joe River Road as it heads east from St. Maries. The road (in white) has several high damage spots that require repair along the 28-mile stretch of road that spans both Benewah and Shoshone counties.
WALLACE — The Shoshone Board of County Commissioners jumped right into their next batch of meetings and projects following Monday’s swearing-in ceremony for the county’s recently elected officials.
One of those meetings was with engineer Jim Roletto, as well as Shawn Metts with HMH Engineering, to discuss the proposed project on the St. Joe River Road that runs through both Benewah and Shoshone counties.
This project will specifically target the stretch of road between St. Maries and the Marble Creek Bridge, which has several spots that are in exceptionally poor condition.
“The construction cost is estimated at $4.2 million and consist of 0.7 miles of reconstruction, 5.5 miles of pavement rehabilitation and 2.9 miles of new guardrail,” Metts said.
The project has specific pavement rehabilitation activities on a milepost-by-milepost basis and is funded through and a Local Highway Technical Assistance Council grant.
LHTAC connects local highway jurisdictions in Idaho with available resources for maintenance and construction of Idaho’s local highway system in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
And while grants of this nature do require a match of some sort, the county’s match will be in the form of in-kind services (minor earthwork and seal coating) and supply of aggregate materials.
“The main benefit, as with most roadway improvement projects, is to repair damaged portions of our roads,” BOCC chairman Mike Fitzgerald said. “In this case, the repair will be to those segments of asphalt on State Highway 3 between St. Maries and the Marble Creek Bridge, which are in the worst condition.”
The project is scheduled to bid in early spring 2019 and be constructed this year.