Path

The Idaho Transportation Department has agreed to fund 93 percent of Hailey’s proposed Croy-to-Quigley shared-use path, shown here in pink. The project will cost about $530,000.

 Graphic courtesy of the city of Hailey

The Hailey City Council unanimously approved an agreement with the Idaho Transportation Department Monday authorizing the city to receive nearly $500,000 in federal funding for its planned Croy-to-Quigley bike and pedestrian path south of Curtis Park.

The path will serve as an extension of the existing Croy Street pathway, connecting the Wood River Trail System between Fifth and Sixth Avenues to Quigley Drive.

The city will initiate a series of public outreach efforts to gather input on the path’s design starting this coming spring, Public Works Director Brian Yeager said, and construction is anticipated to begin in 2022.

“From a government standpoint this is going to go pretty quickly,” he said Monday.

Yeager said the total construction cost amounts to $500,000 “and then some”—$529,961 to be exact. The city will pitch in $38,900 for the project and will receive $491,061 in grant funding from the ITD’s Transportation Alternatives Program, or TAP.

On the city’s side, $33,000 will come from leftover Pathways for People project funding and the remaining $5,900 will come from sidewalk in-lieu fees. The Pathways for People project, designed to provide biking and pedestrian upgrades, was made possible by an $800,000 property tax levy passed by voters in 2017.

“A few extra dollars came in. It always goes plus or minus a little bit,” Yeager said of the levy.

The Croy-to-Quigley path is expected to link up with a bike path proposed as part of the forthcoming Sunbeam Subdivision, he said, which will allow users to make further connections to Curtis Park, the Quigley trail system and Old Cutters Subdivision.

Yeager said two main design options exist for the Croy-to-Quigley path: one, a road-level path similar to the one on Myrtle Street with rumble strips and striping; and two, an elevated path with a curb and gutter section.

“The [road-level] path would be easier to plow and the elevated path would be a bit more difficult to maintain, but better for vertical separation,” he said. “Both of those options are up to our disposal.”

Email the writer: ejones@mtexpress.com

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