City prepares for Commercial St. project

The City of Weiser is moving closer to the start of a project that will realign the s-curve at E. First Street and narrow E. Commercial Street east of E. Second Street.

 Late last year, the city was notified that its application for an approximate $2 million ITD (Idaho Transportation Department), LHTAC (Local Highway Technical Assistance Council)-sponsored grant had been approved.

 The city applied for the non-matching grant in July 2023 and was awarded in October of the same year.

 “We are still up in the air in terms of the project start date,” Public Works Director Mike Campbell told the Signal American last week. “We are still working on the bid package … but the project is definitely a go.”

 Once the bid package is finalized, the city can put the project out to bid in search of contractors for the work, with construction commencing at some point this fall.

 “We are actually hoping to go to bid in the next week to two weeks,” Campbell said. “Then it will be out to bid for another two to three weeks and then, hopefully, signed and started in September.”

 It was initially believed that the grant would cover construction for the entire length of E. Commercial Street, but Campbell said work will begin roughly east of State Street, near the s-curve, and most likely extend east as far as Third Street.

 “We thought it would cover the whole thing, too, but about $280,000 is just for engineering, so we are going to be about $1.6 million on the ground, give or take,” he said. “I don’t even know for sure yet until we get the bids, but who knows, the bids may come in super low, and we may make it to Fourth or Fifth streets. These days, $2 million doesn’t get you far.”

 The section that goes to Third Street measures approximately 1,800 feet in total.

 “We have to replace the sewer line first,” Campbell noted. “We are working on that as we speak. We’ve got bids coming in. The line isn’t terrible, but it’s not good enough to where we can build the road over it. I don’t want to have to cut into our brand-new road in a year or something.”

 Commercial Street is in store for a complete makeover, according to Campbell who said the current 100-foot width will be narrowed to roughly 65 feet.

 He said he is not sure why the road is so wide, but that to the best of his knowledge, it was done to accommodate the common mode of travel of the day.

 “The popular opinion I keep getting is that the roads were made wide enough for a five-team horse-drawn wagon to turn around in,” he said. “That is extremely wide. In today’s world, 60 feet is sufficient. You want 40 feet from curb base to curb base; that’s a pretty generalized road and if you go out to west Ninth Street, that’s how wide that road is. Commercial Street will be a little wider than that … 45 feet with parking, so there will be a parking strip.”

 “We are shifting the whole curbline from north about 14 feet south, so it will narrow up that road significantly because right now that road is 65 feet of asphalt … so, we are going to take it back down to about 44 or 45 feet,” he explained.

 He added that plans include a 12-foot-wide walking/biking path for the north side of Commercial Street, which will extend homeowners’ driveways along the route.

 The project, however, will do more than narrow Commercial Street.

 “It’s going to take out that weird corner at the bowling alley (at E. Second and E. Commercial Streets),” Campbell said. “There is going to be actual engineered turning lanes.”

 He said another crucial part of the project is the s-curve, which begins just east of State Street and exends past First Street where a sharp bend makes it difficult for semi-trucks along the commercial route to negotiate. 

 The speed limit around that bend is 20-mph. 

 Matthew’s Grain and Storage owns the southeast corner, the large, brick building standing vacant now for decades.

 “The big thing is the Matthew’s corner; the project is going to straighten that out significantly,” Campbell said. “They already took the scale out and it’s gone now.

 Campbell said he doesn’t mind if people would like to talk to him about the project. You can call him at City hall, at (208) 414-1965.