The Idaho Transportation Board unanimously approved $2 million Thursday to fund emergency repairs along Highway 21 due to the Wapiti Fire.
The majority of that – $1.3 million – will go toward replacing four miles of guardrails that were severely damaged or completely destroyed by the fire.
“The wood posts were burned, and in some areas, all the way to the ground and, also, we have metal rail that buckled from the thermal expansion,” said Shawna King, a regional engineering manager for the Idaho Transportation Department.
“The fire was hot enough in some areas to cook the zinc galvanization off of the metal rail,” King said.
Crews have been removing more than 1,000 “hazardous” trees burned by the fire, sometimes stacking them along compromised slopes to reduce erosion.
King said the fire even burned about half a mile of pavement.
“We had the pavement literally on fire. It cooked a lot of the asphalt out of the pavement and in some places it’s now just some black rock.”
That $2 million is expected to be reimbursed after an official disaster is declared, giving the state access to relief money.
ITD closed Highway 21 in late-August due to the blaze, which has burned about 125,000 acres in central Idaho. It’s considered 72% contained as of Thursday afternoon.
The agency will reopen the roadway beginning Friday. Travelers can expect delays, reduced speeds and flaggers in the canyon.
King isn’t confident all of the repairs will be made before snow halts work for the season.
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