A year ago, the Eckert Road Bridge over the Boise River was close to collapse. Now, the Ada County Highway District has a preliminary set of designs for a new one — and a tentative timeline for the estimated $30 million project near Barber Park in Boise’s Southeast.
The ACHD this month unveiled plans for a pair of new bridges and roundabout on South Eckert Road with an eye toward an October 2026 groundbreaking, Senior Project Manager Stephanie Tanis told the Idaho Statesman in an interview Wednesday. Complete construction, which would happen in stages, will take between one and two years, she said.
The heart of the project is a newer, wider and sturdier concrete bridge over the Boise River. The existing span, which is set on wooden piers, predates the 1971 founding of the ACHD by decades, according to spokeswoman Rachel Bjornestad. In January, an ITD inspection found that 22 of its 48 supporting piles showed “moderate to severe decay,” she said; at the time, engineers estimated the bridge could support a maximum weight of three tons — about the weight of an F-250.
The survey prompted the emergency closure of the bridge to cars and trucks until early March while work commenced to buttress the roadway. It’s been open to traffic since and has passed regular inspections, Bjornestad said…