MERIDIAN, Idaho — Main Street is closed between 27th Street and Whitewater Park Boulevard in Boise, cutting off access to I-184, Chinden Boulevard, and Fairview Avenue — and the disruption is expected to last through the end of October.
The closure is affecting drivers who rely on the corridor to reach the freeway. Detours are routing traffic from 27th Street to State Street, then to Veterans Memorial Parkway and Curtis Road.
Tim Cadwell, who works near the construction, said the detours have added significant time to his and his wife's daily commute.
WATCH: Boise drivers face weeks of detours as Main Street closes
"Every day I get the road report from her that says, 'It took me 16 minutes to get from downtown to the freeway...from Fourth St,'" said Cadwell.
Michael Blood said he and his wife use Whitewater Park Boulevard daily to reach the freeway and were caught off guard by the closure.
"See where this black car is coming out? That's where most of the cars would come out, and they'd come down here and turn to get on the connector," Blood said.
RELATED | Lanes reopened after crash on I-84 near Ten Mile prompts large response
Blood said his wife drives Whitewater Park Boulevard almost 10 times a day for work and is now working to build the detours into her daily routine.
"Her schedule has really been affected by this," Blood told Idaho News 6.
Cadwell said the road serves a critical function for drivers in both directions.
"This is a main thoroughfare to I-84 and it's also another thoroughfare for people coming off I-84," he explained.
Kimberly Valenti, a receptionist at Sorren, a tax services business near the construction, said the detour is creating dangerous conditions.
She told me, "It's just dangerous because cars are coming in backwards off of the streets that are closed to try and get through and get around the construction, because now they have us boxed in."
The Ada County Highway District said two separate projects are currently underway in the area. The Main Street closure is tied to a sewer work project for a new development and is not an ACHD project. The work on Shoreline Drive and Americana Boulevard is a separate ACHD project focused on road and pedestrian improvements.
Once the current phase wraps up around Sept. 13, crews will move west of Whitewater Park Boulevard toward the Boise River, keeping parts of Main Street closed through the end of October.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
