Series of projects underway for Silver Valley Road
This section of Butts Road in the Elk Creek area near Kellogg, has been under construction recently as part of the Silver Valley Road Safety Improvement Project. The project consists of work on five different intersections along Silver Valley Road and will be completed by mid-May.
Photo by ARiANA McDONALD
WALLACE — While road work continues on I-90, residents looking to avoid delays by taking the backroads might have to plan accordingly as well.
Shoshone County Public Works Director Jessica Stutzke tells the Shoshone News-Press that the Silver Valley Road Safety Improvement Project is underway and will address and rectify safety issues at five different intersections along Silver Valley Road.
Silver Valley Road stretches almost the entire length of the Silver Valley, with a few stops and starts along the way — mainly connecting the larger municipalities of Shoshone County, stopping at one end and then picking back up once a person is through the city.
The five intersections in question are where Silver Valley Road intersects with Big Creek Road; Butts Road (near Elk Creek); Montgomery Gulch Road; Luoma Street (in Kingston); and Upper and Lower Page Roads.
“This is a safety project, so the locations approved by the program for funding were based on accidents recorded at those intersections,” Stutzke said. “It is funded through the Local Highway Safety Improvement Program (LHSIP). The total amount awarded for the project was $586,000.”
Each project has its own unique nuances to them, but at almost all of them will be improved lighting, signage, pavement markings and new paving.
The project at Upper and Lower Page will be the largest and most intensive of the projects, due largely to the complexity of the situation where both Upper and Lower Page Roads intersect with the arterial right next to one another.
According to Stutzke, this area has been a headache for Public Works for years — both from a maintenance standpoint, as well as from a safety and enforcement perspective.
“Work has already begun on Lower Page Road and Butts Road, and will be starting in the other three locations over the next few weeks,” Stutzke told the News-Press. “These projects are scheduled to be completed by mid-May. There will be detours on Upper and Lower Page Roads while work is being done, and flaggers will be conducting traffic control at all of the sites.”
Shoshone County has partnered with Pinehurst-based contractor North Fork Enterprises for this series of projects.
For more information, please call Shoshone County Public Works at 208-753-5475.