Highway construction to be suspended for Labor Day holiday

Work will be suspended on all Idaho Transportation Department highway construction projects statewide for the upcoming Labor Day holiday, except in special circumstances.

Crews working on the Gowen Road Interchange reconstruction project on Interstate 84 near Meridian plan to work over the weekend, with the understanding they will not impede traffic.

ITD requires contractors on highway construction projects to postpone work on any highway, except for normal maintenance operations, during the extended holiday weekend from Saturday to Monday if it could delay the traveling public. Work is allowed on the highway shoulders or anywhere else not affecting traffic.

Some of those extremely rare conditions in which work may continue are:

* Crews not working on a roadway open to the public.

* A road already closed with all traffic using a designated detour.

* Emergency situations (such as flooding) where the roadway has been damaged and requires repair.

* Roads with low traffic volumes.

"Contractors have no interest in working over the holiday, just like most of us," said ITD Chief Operations Officer Jim Carpenter. "Most would take these days off anyway, even if it was not required."