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ACHD outlines 2026–2035 five-year plan update, seeks Meridian feedback
Summary
Ada County Highway District staff presented a draft 2026–2035 five‑year plan framework at a joint meeting with Meridian City Council on Jan. 21, 2025, describing schedule, outreach tools and early programming priorities and inviting Meridian to finalize its priority list before ACHD’s May review.
Ada County Highway District planning staff told a joint Meridian City Council and ACHD commission meeting on Jan. 21, 2025, that ACHD is developing its 2026–2035 five‑year plan and is soliciting public and agency feedback before finalizing project priorities.
Rebecca Phillips, a planner with ACHD, told the meeting the plan — renamed from the “integrated 5‑year work plan” to “ACHD’s 5‑year plan” — will be developed over roughly a year with multiple partner reviews, public outreach and internal programming discussions. She said the district is currently in an initial outreach phase and that the public comment period for the first round of outreach concludes Feb. 5, 2025.
The outreach includes an interactive map where the public and partner agencies can read project details and rank individual projects on a scale of 1 to 3, Phillips said. She reported 471 public comments on the tool to date and said that all feedback will be returned to the corresponding agencies to help finalize local priority lists before Meridian’s council submits its council‑approved priorities to ACHD.
Phillips said ACHD’s early programming objectives include presenting a balanced budget for the first two years (2026–27), increasing staff‑to‑staff meeting availability with partner agencies, and seeking to better align project phases to reduce gaps between design, right‑of‑way and construction.
Diane Bevans, ACHD deputy director of projects, and other ACHD staff answered council questions about specific corridors and current construction. Bevans listed several Meridian‑area projects already underway or prioritized for near‑term construction, including improvements on Eagle Road (Lake Hazel to Amity), the Lake Hazel/Eagle intersection, downtown Meridian pavement and pedestrian improvements, Overland Road, the Linda Road overpass and work on Ustick/State Highway 16.
Phillips gave a schedule of next steps: comments from the initial outreach will be compiled and provided to Meridian ahead of the council’s final priority submission; ACHD plans to present initial public and agency feedback to its commission on May 14, 2025; the district expects to release an initial draft of the 2026–2035 plan in July 2025 for a second comment period; and ACHD anticipates adopting the plan in September 2025.
Council members and commissioners said they welcome the clearer presentation of priorities and asked ACHD to focus on top projects: “If you think of a five‑year period of time, that’s about what you can accomplish,” an ACHD commissioner said, urging the council to emphasize its top three projects when submitting priorities.
Questions from Meridian council members touched on how district‑wide priorities interact with city priorities and whether Meridian‑identified projects would be advanced. ACHD staff repeatedly said the district aims to move Meridian’s top priorities forward but noted that changes in state funding allocations — for example, projects connected to State Highway 16 — can affect timing.
The ACHD presentation and staff answers included phone‑a‑friend exchanges about corridor timing and project phasing; no formal action or vote on the five‑year plan was taken at the meeting.
Looking ahead, Phillips said ACHD staff will continue one‑on‑one agency meetings and presentations to partners in the coming months and will return to Meridian with compiled feedback and draft plan materials on the timeline described above.
