POCATELLO — There’s a running joke that Idaho only has two seasons: winter and road construction.
But for the residents of west Pocatello, that joke feels all too real on the heels of arguably the most mild winter on record and the seemingly endless renovation of the Center Street Underpass, which restarted back in January — what is normally the dead of winter — and is expected to continue to at least one month shy of a full calendar year.
Those who live or work in the Historic Downtown Pocatello neighborhood and surrounding west side areas aren’t only feeling frostbitten because of the underpass closure.
Area residents are also slaloming around the closure of the Portneuf bridge on West Benton Street, South Main Street lane closures for crosswalk bulb-out construction and one-way flagger-controlled intersections throughout the west side with the installation of Google Fiber lines.
And within two weeks the Pocatello Development Authority will begin a three-month demolition of the fire-gutted Monarch Building, intermittently closing West Center Street as well.
Pocatello Public Works Director Tom Kirkman says the city is aware of the headaches these projects have caused and that although no firm date exists for when the underpass will reopen to traffic, crews are navigating literal boulder-sized obstacles to finish as soon as possible.
For those who hoped road construction season might at least wait until the snow melted, welcome to Pocatello, where this year it didn’t even bother to fall in the first place.
Center Street Underpass
Of all the ongoing projects, the Center Street Underpass renovation has tested community patience the most. The underpass serves roughly 10,000 drivers daily as the primary gateway to Historic Downtown Pocatello and has been closed since January as crews repair a structure approaching 100 years old that sits directly beneath an active Union Pacific Railroad line.
“We have to remove retaining walls that are actually holding the train tracks in place,” Kirkman said. “The amount of preparation and steps we have to do to ensure that we don’t have any sort of collapse or incident that affects the railroad’s ability to operate is huge. This is probably one of the most complex projects I’ve ever been associated with.”
Compounding the technical difficulties are massive boulders deposited underground during the ancient Bonneville Flood — obstacles crews can’t locate until they hit them. Recently, the boulders forced a switch from pile-driving to auguring through the rock, Kirkman said, a process that requires different equipment and adds delays. The city has since added a second crew and extended the work week from 40 to 50 hours to accelerate progress.
Reopening one lane of traffic remains a goal, but commuter safety has prevented it.
“We don’t want to open the underpass and then have somebody get hurt — that’s the big thing,” Kirkman said. “We have to evaluate every week whether it’s safe to do that or not.”
Railroad operations add yet another layer of complexity. When a train approaches, crews must stop all crane and overhead work and shift to another part of the project until the tracks are clear.
A firm completion date remains elusive. Kirkman said the project is simply too fluid to commit to one, though he’s hopeful the underpass fully reopens by December.
He explained the stakes of doing it right.
“Those retaining walls are what’s basically holding the structure together. If those walls were to fail, we could have stuff caving in,” he said. “Short-term pain for long-term gain.”
The project is funded through a $5.7 million congressional appropriation secured with help from U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, $2.1 million from the Metropolitan Planning Organization and Idaho Transportation Department, and approximately $572,520 from the city.
In the meantime, Kirkman encouraged residents from across the city to make a point of visiting and supporting west side businesses while construction runs its course.
Monarch Building Demolition
The most dramatic change coming to downtown will be the disappearance of the Monarch Building. Pocatello Development Authority Executive Director Brent McClane said contractors will mobilize within two weeks, beginning next week with site security, interior remediation and sewer line relocation before the structure itself starts to come down the week after.
The demolition is technically complex because the Monarch shares foundational connections with the adjacent Paris Building to the west — home to Vintage Vinyl — and the building housing the First National bar to the east.
These connections require contractors to shore up neighboring foundations before the Monarch can be safely removed. The Eugene, Oregon-based contractor chosen for the job, Staton Co., has previous experience with high-profile technical demolitions including Highland High School and the Riverton Road overpass, McClane said, adding that the company recently opened a Pocatello extension office.
McClane said the timing of the Monarch demolition was intentional.
“We’re trying to take advantage of that Center Street closure and have a smaller impact on downtown,” he said. “It’s been a nuisance for long enough — it’s time to deal with it.”
Once cleared, the site will be backfilled to a flat dirt lot while the PDA prepares a request for proposals for redevelopment, targeted for release this fall. Neighboring businesses will remain open throughout.
Portneuf River Bridge on Benton Street
Less dramatic but no less significant, a complete replacement of the Portneuf River Bridge on West Benton Street, located between South Hayes and South Grant avenues, is also in full swing. Kirkman said he estimates it should be completed this fall.
Kirkman said the bridge had deteriorated to the point where load restrictions were being considered, adding that it was the last Portneuf River crossing throughout the Army Corps of Engineers concrete channel in need of replacement. The city had already replaced similar spans at Carson, Custer, Center, Clark and Lewis streets, making Benton the final piece of a long-running citywide bridge rehabilitation effort.
“This bridge was in really, really bad shape and we were putting load restrictions on it,” Kirkman said. “We definitely don’t want to do that. We want to keep the bridges in a better condition.”
The project is fully funded through the Leading Idaho Local Bridge Grant, requiring no local match.
One reason the work is more involved than a simple bridge swap is because the concrete channel directing the Portneuf beneath Benton Street is part of the city’s flood prevention infrastructure, and any replacement had to be designed without compromising that system, Kirkman said, adding that the city worked closely with the Army Corps of Engineers to get the new bridge design approved before a shovel ever hit the ground.
Much of the new bridge structure is being built off-site and will be craned into place, so drivers passing by may notice stretches when little to no visible activity is happening at the site.
Bulb-Outs and Pedestrian Safety
The most nearly complete of the downtown projects is one to construct pedestrian bulb-outs — curb extensions at crosswalk locations paired with new ADA-compliant ramps. Kirkman said the first portion of this project is nearly finished, with South Main Street expected to reopen fully within days.
“When you’re driving down a street and you have this geometry change in the road, it has a tendency to make people pay more attention,” Kirkman said. “And it allows pedestrians to get visible because they’re out toward the street a little bit more.”
Once complete on Main Street, the work shifts to the intersection of West Lander Street and North Arthur Avenue in front of Pocatello High School for the same improvements. The project is funded by a pedestrian safety grant.
Google Fiber and Urban Forestry
Rounding out the activity on the west side, Google Fiber installation is nearing completion throughout the neighborhood. Google Fiber began construction in Pocatello in 2023 and expanded to the west side in January 2025, starting near the intersection of Gold Street and North Arthur Avenue and working outward from there.
The company says more than half the overall Pocatello project is complete, with the initial phase of the network build on track to finish by the end of the first quarter of 2027. West side residents can expect to begin connecting to service as early as August.
Installation is done through a process called microtrenching — crews cut a narrow, shallow trench into the roadway, vacuum out the debris, lay the fiber conduit and backfill it with a weather-resistant sealant, said Alberto Garcia, GFiber government and community affairs manager.
Kirkman said the city is hopeful the improved connectivity will benefit west side merchants in particular.
“Getting that fiber in is a big deal for us, and we’re hopeful it helps a lot of the merchants down there,” he said.
Meanwhile, crews working under the city’s Urban Community Forestry Grant have nearly finished planting 50 new trees in Historic Downtown, with protective cages and new lighting to follow.
“We had 50 new trees to plant in downtown,” said Pocatello Parks and Recreation Director Anne Butler. “We didn’t have to tear out trees in all of those 50 slots, because some of them had already been removed or had been cut out.”
The grant — originally $1 million, now supplemented by an additional $795,000 and a six-month extension — has also put approximately 350 trees in the ground across Pocatello over the past year, with another round of planting expected this fall.
It is, like so much else on Pocatello’s west side this year, a project aimed at making the neighborhood better for the next generation — even if getting there requires navigating a few extra orange cones first.