The City of McCall and the Idaho Transportation Dept. will get some cash to work on the design of the state highway in and around McCall.
The Federal Highway Administration announced a $2.9 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant for corridor design of Highway 55, as well as Deinhard Ln. and Boydston St.
For years, the city and the highway agency have considered moving the Idaho 55 highway route from its current setup through town and around Payette Lake to instead fork off at Deinhard Ln. near the airport and hook back up past town at Boydstun St.
The application to the FHA said the total cost of the design project is $3,596,890, and the agency awarded $2,877,512.
The current 55, which in McCall is known as Third St. and Lake St. would remain in place for local traffic. In short: trucks and folks who don’t need to do business in McCall would use a new bypass, and tourists and residents would use the current route.
ITD issued a news release about the RAISE grant but did not directly mention the bypass possibility. However, the FHA grant page is more specific:
“The project will complete planning and design of roadway, drainage, utility and multi-modal improvements along the existing Idaho State Highway 55 route and Deinhard Lane/Boydstun Street corridors to reroute traffic around downtown McCall,” the information page says.
The money won’t go to actually building the road but instead to working on the design. The grant is aimed at reducing energy consumption, improving air and water quality, increasing safety, and support of commerce, among other factors. Areas for new EV stations also will be identified.
“This project will include study and planning of strategies and infrastructure improvements needed to improve safety for all transportation types, whether McCall is a final destination or users are just passing through,” the application notes.
Challenges, opportunities
There are a number of obstacles to building the project – including funding. Another key issue is a set of “s curves” on Deinhard Ln. at the north end of the McCall Airport runway. The road tightly curves between the runway and fire station, and the configuration could need to change to convert the road into a state highway. To straighten out the curves, the airport’s runway would need to be extended further to the south to meet Federal Aviation Administration requirements, as the Star-News previously reported. ITD said in 2021 that other options to mitigate the s-curves exist, but didn’t elaborate.
ITD notes that moving the main highway route away from Payette Lake would help protect Payette Lake – which is McCall’s source of drinking water and a major anchor for the tourism economy. A proposal to reactivate the Stibnite mine could add thousands of trips for trucks carrying hazardous materials per year to the highway through McCall, near the lake and by popular downtown businesses.
The full cost of the projects isn’t known, but a 2021 study identified more than $20 million in potential costs – including a new roundabout at Boydstun and Idaho 55, $17 million in upgrades in the streets through McCall, and more.
Lake St. between the downtown area and Shore Lodge does not have sidewalks but is increasingly a popular route for pedestrians – who often end up walking on the shoulder of the road very near cars. The situation is amplified in the winter when snow banks line Lake St., further cutting room for people to move between the Shore Lodge/Lardo’s area and downtown. Third Street, the north-south route, also lacks sidewalks in many areas.
The project could upgrade some of this infrastructure, which the city has identified in its Access McCall project.
Correction: The location of the roundabout was misidentified in a previous version of this story.
