Gov. Little demands ITD produce report after BoiseDev investigation on Idaho 55

Governor Brad Little is demanding solutions from the Idaho Transportation Division after BoiseDev printed the outcomes of a six-month-long investigation Tuesday.

The investigation centered round ITD’s building zone on Freeway 55 close to Smith’s Ferry and the three main landslides which have occurred there. The story uncovered important new details about the mission, together with warning indicators of slope instability that had been ignored, the mission being hundreds of thousands over funds, and different findings.

Wednesday, BoiseDev requested Gov. Brad Little’s workplace for touch upon the story. The governor’s press secretary, Madison Hardy, supplied a letter the governor despatched to the chair of the ITD board Invoice Moad and division director Scott Stokes, Director.

Little writes on the high of the letter that “public security is my high precedence” and notes how necessary it’s to the state to maintain vacationers protected on Idaho roads “particularly areas underneath building.”

Governor Little stated his workplace was not conscious of the “magnitude” of the protection issues.

“My workplace had no information of the magnitude of the alleged security issues outlined within the article, nor did my workplace know in regards to the BoiseDev public data requests and inquiries into these necessary points, which date again to January of this 12 months,” the letter reads. 

Little is requesting that ITD present a report back to his workplace no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 30. The report should comprise an evaluation of the mission’s present dangers to public security, a evaluate of the BoiseDev article and repose to the small print throughout the story, and a abstract of all media inquiries the division obtained for the reason that begin of 2022 in regards to the Idaho 55 mission, together with the division’s responses. 

“I’ll evaluate your report earlier than contemplating an outdoor third-party evaluate into the protection issues raised within the article,” Governor Little wrote. “I’ve not dominated out an outdoor evaluate of the mission to make sure public security and the general public’s confidence, that are my high priorities.”

ITD declined to reply BoiseDev’s detailed questions in regards to the mission.

You’ll be able to learn the total letter, under.

BoiseDev’s Margaret Carmel contributed reporting.