When a 2022 flood damaged the Idaho Transportation Department’s campus on State Street in Boise, nobody knew the drama sitting in wait over the future of the buildings.
On a snowy Jan. 2, with temperatures dropping from 25 to 6 degrees, pipes in the main ITD headquarters began to freeze in a penthouse mechanical room. Water poured from the failing pipes, flooding all three floors of the building and exposing materials filled with asbestos, whose tiny crystals can cause health problems and deadly lung cancers.
Faced with an uninhabitable building , the Transportation Department’s board chose to relocate and sell the campus. That decision to sell it to a group of developers sparked fights in the Legislature. The clashes between Republican factions at the Capitol played a role in the downfall of a long-standing politician, and the cancellation of the sale triggered an Idaho Supreme Court lawsuit.
Lawmakers who successfully opposed the sale argued that it would cost taxpayers more than repairing the 44-acre campus. Estimates released publicly Wednesday now say otherwise.