The cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck are once again moving forward with a much-anticipated project to install a traffic signal at the intersection of Hawthorne and West Quinn roads along the border between the two cities.

Pocatello Public Works Director Jeff Mansfield says right-of-way acquisition for the project is nearly complete and utility companies including Idaho Power were prepping the intersection site last week for construction that’s set to occur in fiscal year 2024.

“We are excited, as we’ve been working on this project for quite a while now,” Mansfield said. “There is a big need based on capacity and safety at the intersection and it’ll be really beneficial to keep traffic flowing through that intersection.”

Pocatello, the leading municipal agency, first announced the West Quinn and Hawthorne roads project in 2013 after the Bannock Transportation Planning Organization policy board determined traffic at the intersection exceeded its design capacity and that further improvements were necessary to upgrade capacity and safety.

The city completed preliminary designs and received public comment on the project in 2015, with plans to begin construction in 2018. In addition to a traffic signal to replace the four-way stop sign, the project involves widening the intersection to install curbs and sidewalk infrastructure, adding bike lanes to the east and west sides of West Quinn Road and to the south side of Hawthorne and creating dedicated turning lanes.

Then in 2017, an additional 4.1 million increase to the construction of the Northgate Interchange resulted in a delay to both the Hawthorne-Quinn project and another state-sponsored project that involved improvements to the intersection of Alameda Road and Yellowstone Avenue.

Pocatello announced in 2018 that the final design for the Hawthorne-Quinn project was complete and the Idaho Department of Transportation had restored funding for right-of-way acquisition to begin the summer of 2019.

Mansfield says the reason for the project’s delay was not necessarily due to the construction of the new Interstate 15 Northgate Interchange, but instead because the city was awaiting funding from the Federal Highway Administration.

“At one time, the funding was moved from this project to the Northgate Interchange; however, it immediately went back on,” Mansfield said. “There really wasn’t any delay in the project due to that funding issue. The only delay to the project has been getting the funding from the Federal Highway Administration.”

Funding from the Federal Highway Administration is expected in Pocatello’s 2024 fiscal year, October 2023 through September 2024, Mansfield said.

“However, there is some stimulus money out there that we are chasing to try and expedite this process,” Mansfield said. “And if that happens this project could happen in the next year.”

The overall cost of the Hawthorne-Quinn project is estimated to cost $3.3 million, Mansfield said, with a 7.34 percent match, or approximately $245,000, required from the cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck. Of the $245,000, Chubbuck will pay 25 percent for the improvements to the north side of Hawthorne Road and Pocatello will pay the remaining 75 percent, about $184,000, for the other three legs of the intersection within its city limits.

“There is a ton of public support for this project,” Mansfield said. “We regularly receive questions and comments about this project with people wanting it to happen as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we just have to wait for the funding to become available.”

Mansfield continued, “But we recognize it’s a priority and we are trying to do everything we can to get it done as soon as possible.”