How To: Get a Road Fixed, a Signal Studied or a Project Changed

Most people who want a road fixed or changed start by calling whoever they can think of, often a city council member or a legislator. Sometimes that works. More often the request lands with an office that does not own the road, or arrives after the plan or budget it needed to be in has already been adopted. This lesson is a practical playbook. It walks through the channels in order, from a pothole report to a seven-year plan comment to legislative testimony, with the rules and deadlines that govern each.

Facts are current as of October 2026. Phone numbers, forms and meeting schedules change, so confirm each one on the agency's site before you act. This lesson builds on Lesson 1 (ownership), Lesson 5 (the ITD plan) and Lesson 6 (highway district budgets).

Step zero: find the owner

Use Lesson 1 for the full method. In short:

• State highways (interstates, US routes and Idaho state highways such as SH-44 or SH-55) belong to ITD. Even inside a city, the state highway itself is ITD's. In Ada County, ACHD's own pothole guidance notes that I-84, Broadway Avenue and parts of Eagle Road are ITD roads, not ACHD roads (KIVI, March 29, 2026).
• Ada County local roads, inside and outside cities, belong to ACHD.
• Elsewhere, local roads belong to a city (inside city limits, unless a highway district covers the city), a highway district, or a county road department. County GIS maps usually show the jurisdiction.
• Forest roads, tribal roads and private roads have their own owners and rules.

ITD's six districts, from the ITD District Offices guide:

ITD district	Counties
District 1 (North Idaho)	Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai, Shoshone
District 2 (North-Central)	Clearwater, Idaho, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce
District 3 (Southwest)	Ada, Adams, Boise, Canyon, Elmore, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, Valley, Washington
District 4 (South-Central)	Blaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, Twin Falls
District 5 (Southeast)	Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Caribou, Franklin, Oneida, Power
District 6 (East)	Bonneville, Butte, Clark, Custer, Fremont, Jefferson, Lemhi, Madison, Teton

Reporting a maintenance problem

Where to send it

• ITD: Contact the district office that covers the county. ITD's site lists a "Report on a Road Issue" link that leads to the district contact pages, and a general "Submit a Comment to ITD" form. For example, the District 2 office is at 2600 Frontage Road in Lewiston, (208) 799-5090 (ITD District 2 contact page). For emergencies that threaten safety, such as a downed sign at an intersection or debris in a travel lane, call 911 or local police.
• Idaho 511 (511.idaho.gov) shows closures, conditions and cameras. It is a traveler information system, not a work-order system.
• ACHD: Use ACHD's online reporting or the ACHD Connect tool, which lets you drop a pin on the problem. ACHD ran a "Pothole Days" campaign March 30 to April 3, 2026, asking residents to report potholes with the exact lane and nearby landmarks.
• County road departments and highway districts: Call the district office or use its website form. Many small districts have no online form, so a phone call followed by a short email creates a record.
• Cities: Use the city's street department or service request portal.

What to include

Include	Why
Exact location: road name, nearest cross street or milepost, direction and lane	Crews dispatch by location; ITD tracks state highways by route and milepost
What you saw and when	Dates matter for safety records and any later claim
A photo taken safely	Lets staff judge urgency. Never stop in a travel lane to take it
Your contact information	So staff can ask follow-up questions and tell you the outcome
A request for a reference number	Lets you follow up and later request the work order record

If a road defect damages your vehicle or injures someone, Idaho's Tort Claims Act sets a deadline. A claim against a political subdivision, such as a city, county or highway district, must be filed with its clerk or secretary within 180 days from when the claim arose or reasonably should have been discovered (Idaho Code 6-906). Claims against the state follow a separate section. This is not legal advice; talk to a lawyer about a specific claim.

Asking for a traffic signal, stop sign or crosswalk

The federal manual and Idaho's adoption

Signs, signals and pavement markings on public roads must follow the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). The 11th edition took effect nationally on January 18, 2024, and states must substantially conform within two years. ITD proposed adopting it through an update to IDAPA 39.03.41, Rules Governing Traffic Control Devices, with Idaho-specific changes (for example, keeping Idaho's rule that drivers yield, rather than stop, for pedestrians in uncontrolled crosswalks, and handling Idaho's law letting bicyclists treat stop signs as yield signs), per ITD's July 3, 2024 summary of proposed changes. Check the current IDAPA rule to confirm the final adoption date.

Signal warrants

The MUTCD requires "An engineering study of traffic conditions, pedestrian characteristics, and physical characteristics of the location" to decide whether a signal is justified. The 2009 edition (Section 4C.01) lists nine warrants. The 11th edition also uses a set of signal warrants; check its Chapter 4C for the current criteria before citing a specific threshold. The key rule: "The satisfaction of a traffic signal warrant or warrants shall not in itself require the installation of a traffic control signal." Agencies weigh alternatives such as roundabouts, turn lanes or all-way stops, and a signal can make some crash types worse.

How to ask

Write to the road owner's traffic engineering staff. Ask for a traffic study, not a signal. Give the facts that line up with the warrants: peak-hour backups, children crossing to school, crashes you know about, a nearby rail crossing. Ask what the agency's process and timeline are, whether the location is already on a study list, and whether counts exist. If a study is done, request the report. Agencies count vehicles and pedestrians for at least the hours the warrants require, so a request in July for a school crossing may wait until school is in session.

A real example: US-95 and Dufort Road

North of Sagle, residents asked for years for safer turns at US-95 and East Dufort Road. In August 2026, ITD crews began a new northbound right-turn lane, described as the first phase toward a traffic signal that ITD expected to operate by late spring or early summer 2027, according to the Sandpoint Reader (August 5, 2026). ITD said an engineering evaluation showed the intersection qualified and allowed access to additional funding, and that the work was not originally in the seven-year plan. The July 16, 2026 Idaho Transportation Board agenda listed a Board Unallocated Funds request for the signal. District Engineer Ryan Hawkins told the Reader, "We know this is a project the community has been asking about for years." The sequence (community requests, an engineering evaluation, a funding request to the Board, then construction) is the typical path for a spot safety fix on a state highway. ITD's long-term concept for the corridor is an interchange at Dufort, which would replace the signal.

Changing a speed limit

Idaho's default limits are in Idaho Code 49-654: 35 mph in urban, residential and business districts; 75 mph on interstates (up to 80 after an ITD engineering and traffic study, a finding that the increase is in the public interest, and Transportation Board concurrence); 65 mph on state highways (up to 70 by the same process); and 55 mph elsewhere unless posted otherwise, up to 70. Drivers must always go no faster than is "reasonable and prudent" for conditions.

Local agencies can change limits on their own roads under Idaho Code 49-207, but only on the basis of an engineering or traffic investigation. They may lower limits in residential, business or urban districts, raise them in nonresidential parts of urban districts (not above 70 mph), and lower them outside urban districts. Changes to state highway limits, including state highways through cities, require ITD approval based on a traffic engineering study meeting ITD standards. If ITD and a local authority disagree, ITD's study is adopted unless the local study goes to the Idaho Transportation Board, which may adopt it in whole or in part. A changed limit takes effect when signs are posted.

Traffic engineers often set limits near the speed most drivers already travel, on the view that a limit far below that is widely ignored. Many residents and safety advocates argue limits should reflect who uses the road, such as children walking to school, not only measured speeds. Both views show up in local hearings. Ask for the study and read its data before you testify.

Using safety data

ITD's Office of Highway Safety maintains Idaho's crash database. Its safety page links to:

• ITD Crash Data Dashboards, with charts, graphs and maps you can filter by location; the default view shows the last five full years.
• Annual crash analysis reports, including the 2025 report.
• The 2026-2030 Strategic Highway Safety Plan.
• Individual crash reports, available to the general public for $7.00 per copy plus a transaction fee (crash report request page).

According to ITD's 2025 crash analysis, as also reported by East Idaho News (September 3, 2026), Idaho had 28,127 crashes in 2025, 231 fatal crashes and 252 deaths (up 5.9 percent from 238), 1,256 suspected serious injuries and 4,275 suspected minor injuries. Impaired driving was linked to about 35 percent of fatalities, and aggressive driving was involved in 13,610 crashes, about 48 percent of all crashes. ITD estimated the economic cost at nearly $6.1 billion.

When you use crash data to support a request, count crashes at the specific location over five years, sort them by type (rear-end, angle, pedestrian, run-off-road), and note severity. A pattern of angle crashes at an unsignalized intersection is evidence for a study; a single severe crash is a tragedy but may not show a pattern. Be aware that federal law limits how safety studies can be used in lawsuits: under 23 U.S.C. 407, reports and data compiled to identify or plan safety improvements under federal safety programs "shall not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding." Agencies sometimes cite this when asked for safety analyses. It limits court use, not necessarily public records release, so ask anyway and ask the agency to cite the specific exemption if it refuses.

Getting a project into a plan, or changed

The annual calendar

Most road decisions happen on a predictable schedule. If you miss the window, the next chance may be a year away.

ITD's seven-year plan (ITIP)

ITD takes public comment on the draft Idaho Transportation Investment Program each July. In 2026 the window was July 1 to 31 for the FY2027-2033 draft (ITD notice). Comments could be sent by email to itipcomments@itd.idaho.gov, by phone at 208-334-8063, or by mail to ITD at P.O. Box 7129, Boise, ID 83707, and ITD said all comments would go to the Idaho Transportation Board before it considered adopting the plan in September (East Idaho News, July 18, 2026). The 2026 draft moved about $1.3 billion in projects to "unfunded" and left about $1.5 billion in TECM projects unbonded. The plan assumes no Strategic Initiatives money after the one-time $275 million General Fund transfer for fiscal 2026 (S1218, 2025) was not repeated by the 2026 Legislature (Lesson 4 and Lesson 5). In that environment, comments that address priorities among unfunded projects, safety needs and maintenance carry more weight than requests for new expansion.

MPO plans and local applications

In metro areas, federal projects must be in the MPO's TIP (Lesson 7). COMPASS opened applications for its FY2028-2034 program September 16 to November 20, 2026. Local agencies outside metro areas apply to LHTAC for federal-aid programs. A resident cannot apply directly, but can ask a city council, county commission or highway district board to apply, and can testify when the board decides.

Changing a project already being designed

Larger projects go through environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act and public meetings during design. That is where design changes happen. On the US-95 corridor from Dufort Road to Lakeshore Drive near Sagle, ITD took public comment in October 2024 and then changed its preferred concept: it removed a proposed underpass at Algoma Spur Road and Ivy Drive, moved it to Sagle Road, and added a frontage road across from Ivy Drive, according to the Sandpoint Reader (March 5, 2025). The same article quoted ITD: "Currently, funding is not identified for the final design and construction of this project." A design change won in comment does not guarantee construction money, which is decided later in the ITIP.

In Pocatello, the Bannock Transportation Planning Organization took comment through September 5, 2026 on amending its FY2027-2033 TIP and MTP 2050 to add a new US-91 and Park Lawn Drive intersection project (BTPO). Plan amendments like this are short, specific and easy to miss, and they are the moment a project's scope and timing are set.

Budget hearings: where local road money is decided

Highway districts, counties and cities adopt budgets each summer for a fiscal year that starts October 1. The budget hearing is the formal public chance to argue for a project, a maintenance level or a tax decision. ACHD adopted its FY2027 budget of about $261 million on August 26, 2026 (ACHD budget page), taking all available property tax increases, including forgone balance, and earmarking $1.7 million of forgone for one year of Cloverdale Road work between Victory and Overland roads (BoiseDev). That earmark is the kind of specific, project-tied decision a resident can influence before the hearing by writing to commissioners and staff during the spring work-plan process. See Lesson 6, and in the local government course, the budget cycle and the 3 percent cap.

Records requests

Many road questions are answered faster by records than by meetings: work orders, traffic counts, signal studies, speed studies, crash summaries, project files and emails. Under Idaho Code 74-103, an agency must grant or deny a request from an Idaho resident within three working days, or notify you in writing that it needs more time, in which case records must be provided within 10 working days. Requests from nonresidents not employed by a resident have longer limits: 21 days to respond and 35 days with an extension. If an agency does not respond in time, the request is deemed denied. ITD takes requests through its public records portal. The full method is in Idaho Public Records Requests.

Legislators and the Transportation Board

The Legislature sets state fuel taxes and fees, decides transfers such as the Strategic Initiatives money and TECM sales tax share, and approves ITD's budget. The 2027 regular session convenes at noon on Monday, January 11, 2027, the Monday on or nearest January 9 under Idaho Code 67-404. Transportation bills usually go to the House and Senate transportation committees, and ITD's budget goes through the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC). Legislators can ask ITD questions and press for projects, but they do not program individual projects; the Idaho Transportation Board does. Board meetings are generally monthly, rotate among districts, and are open to the public except for executive sessions; the July 2026 agenda, for example, listed no general public comment period, so contact board members and district staff in writing or attend district open houses held alongside meetings. See How an Idaho Bill Becomes Law and Testimony and Comments.

Where this fits in the rest of the course

This lesson puts the earlier lessons to work. Ownership is in Lesson 1, money sources in Lesson 2, the constitutional limits on highway money in Lesson 3, bonding and the Strategic Initiatives fund in Lesson 4, the ITIP in Lesson 5, highway district budgets in Lesson 6, federal plans in Lesson 7 and impact fees in Lesson 8. Lesson 10 covers how to investigate a project and check the numbers.

Related courses: Testifying and Public Comment, Idaho Public Records Requests, Idaho Open Meetings, Laws and Rules, Local Government, Running for Local Office (highway district commissioner races), the Power Grid course for comparison with utility rate-case participation, and Conducting Public Meetings for elected officials.