The end is near for many of the projects currently dotting Interstate 90 throughout Shoshone County.  

Last week, crews began paving the various stretches between the bottom of Fourth of July Pass and Wallace, and the Idaho Transportation Department anticipates that these projects will be completed next month.  

Many residents had grown concerned over what had been perceived as projects being left incomplete, accompanied by rumors of many projects being delayed because of shortages in paving materials swirled around social media in recent weeks, but these rumors turned out to be false.  

ITD Public Information Officer Heather McDaniel confirmed that there were no shortages in materials, but instead explained why people may be feeling like these projects were abandoned.  

“I suspect some of those rumors may be because crews were not currently paving, but that’s due to planned staging and sequencing for the work site, not because of issues with the plant,” McDaniel said.  

Because of the number and size of the projects throughout Shoshone County, ITD’s plans included strategic timing for paving so that once they brought the trucks and equipment needed to complete the final stretch of the jobs, the trucks could remain in the area and not go back and forth.  

McDaniel did admit that a few weeks ago, one of the asphalt plants used to supply the projects was having some minor issues with their aggregate but had been resolved without issue.   

Aggregate is a hard inert granular material of mineral composition such as sand, gravel, slag, or crushed stone, used in pavement applications either by itself or for mixing with asphalt mixing in graduated fragments. This material can come in many forms depending upon the design of the project – These forms include coarse or fine aggregates as well as many other options.  

The asphalt used to pave highways combines coarse and fine aggregate, mixed with a petroleum-based binder that is heated to a temperature of 300º before it gets laid and smoothed out. The aggregate combination must be exact to achieve the desired or required levels of stability and durability.