Source: http://www.kboi2.com By Michael Locklear
Near ATLANTA, Idaho (KBOI) – Crews are now racing the clock to rebuild a washed-out road that is the only route to Atlanta in the winter. Middle Fork Boise River Road is also a popular one for outdoor enthusiasts, but flash flooding last month caused a wet road block that now has to be cleared.
“Oh, it’s terrible. The whole road’s gone,” said Tom Dore, manager of Twin Springs Resort.
The blockage is more than a two-hour drive from Boise along the long dirt route to the small mountain community of Atlanta.
“Everybody stops in and socializes or gets ice or beer or water, whatever they want,” Dore said. “When the washout happened, that won’t stop our guests from coming up, but it does stop all the road traffic, so it affects us quite a bit.”
Todd Bartolome, the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council construction engineer, tells KBOI 2News that a 1,000-foot stretch of roadway is underwater.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” Bartolome said. “It’s going to be a major undertaking to get that river moved over and stabilized and then to dewater the area where we need to build the road.”
Flashing flooding in early August moved a large amount of sediment and rocks, altering the course of the Middle Fork of the Boise River. What caused the problem will soon become building materials for the new road.
“They’re counting on this road being open,” Dore said. “I mean, that’s our mail route. That’s how everybody gets in and out of Atlanta.”
The construction schedule is aggressive. Bartolome says workers have five weeks to finish the project. He says $500,000 of federal emergency money is enough to make the road passable, which they hope to accomplish before winter.
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