Ada County Highway Department unveils Cassia Street bikeway proposal

A bikeway with a new pedestrian bridge at Cassia Park are in the works, according to a proposal for the Cassia Street bikeway and walkway project – and the public can provide input on future developments.

The Ada County Highway Department held an open house on Jan. 9 to unveil their proposal for the Cassia Street bikeway and walkway project. The event was at the Redeemer Lutheran Church on W. Cassia Street in Boise and drew an attendance of over 200. ACHD also created an online survey for those unable to visit the open house with a deadline of Jan. 24 for responses.

“We really want to hear from the public,” remarked ACHD spokesman Natalie Shaver. “The open house for the Cassia Street Bikeway is a really good example of how we like to work with county residents on all our projects.”

The meeting was the second of two sessions where the public was invited to give feedback on the project. The first meeting was June 27, 2018, to introduce interested citizens to ACHD’s initial conception for the bikeway and sidewalks. The agency also set up an online survey to collect further comments.

After the initial 2018 open house, ACHD assimilated the public’s input. The second open house this month was to show the redesign based on that input and to solicit further feedback. The current project plan includes bike lanes, new signalized pedestrian and bike crossings, and a raised intersection at Cassia and Shoshone where South Junior High School is located.

“There aren’t many raised intersections here,” Shaver said. “This project includes one. Raised intersections are traffic calming and force cars to slow down.”

The bikeway will include a new pedestrian bridge at Cassia Park and a northbound bicycle-only left turn lane at the intersection of Cassia and Roosevelt. The project will build sidewalks along the roadway between Latah and Shoshone and between Troxel and Franklin Park. Cassia Street currently does not have sidewalks at these locations. The road will also be repaved along the new sidewalks.

Cassia Street was identified as the location for a bikeway in the 2012 Boise Central Bench Neighborhood Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan. It was also included in the 2018 Roadways-to-Bikeways Master Plan Update. The goal of the project is to connect the east and west sides of the Central Bench neighborhood with a low-stress bikeway.

The bikeway will connect Boise State University and Downtown Boise on the east via Kootenai Street with future Liberty Street Bikeway on the west.

ACHD will initiate the purchase of the required right-of-ways for the project beginning this spring. Construction is scheduled to begin early in 2021 and finish a year later. The project has a budget of approximately $3 million spread over several years and includes funding to repave Cassia Street.