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BOISE, Idaho — The Ada County Highway District is seeking public input on a project to widen Five Mile Road between Franklin and Overland roads. A public meeting was held Tuesday to provide an overview of the widening. The project also includes multi-use sidewalks for bicyclists and pedestrians.

• The best time to comment on the project is before Thursday, June 27th.
• The final designs are expected to be ready between the end of this year and summer 2025.
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(Below is the transcript of the broadcast report.)

Dozens visited Maple Grove Elementary School on Tuesday to view and comment on a new project ACHD is proposing for the West and South Boise area.

“The roadway will be expanded to five lanes and the overpass to four lanes,” said Rachel Speer, engineer at ACHD.

The road highlighted by highway engineer Rachel Speer is Five Mile Road. The current two-lane overpass could be widened to reduce traffic congestion.

“We will also modernize the pedestrian and bicycle paths on both sides of the road and across the overpass into multi-use paths,” said Speer.

This makes Five Mile a better route for many Idaho residents, like Mac Mcomber, who has lived in the Treasure Valley since 1985 and has witnessed the area’s development.

“The traffic on the highway is obviously very heavy in the morning,” said Mcomber. The Eagle resident uses the route to travel north-south and says he is fully in favor of the expansion.

“I think the project is desperately needed,” Mcomber said. “It looks to me like it’s well designed considering the traffic load that’s expected over the next X years.”

I checked out the project with other neighbors in the area because the road expansion extends from Franklin down to Overland. Speer said it will help in many ways and solve the biggest problem – “increasing traffic capacity and reducing bottlenecks that can occur,” Speer said.