Construction continues for 94 step staircase at Ann Morrison Memorial Park

Crews are building a 94 step staircase from the top of Peasley Street down to Ann Morrison Park to improve and provide a safer commute for pedestrians and bicyclists.

• Boise Parks and Recreation hopes to have the stairs completed by the end of the calendar year.
• Officials plan to start installing the stairs early this fall. So far, crews are filling concrete footings to anchor the future staircase.

( Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

Imagine being able to get from Ann Morrison Memorial Park to Peasley Street —the only thing is you'll have to walk about 94 steps up.

I’m your Boise Bench Neighborhood reporter Jessica Davis at Ann Morrison Park where crews are making progress on a staircase designed to connect the Depot Bench area to Ann Morrison Park.

“We're working on inspections and fabrications at this point, so we're kind of neck deep in construction,” says Sara Arkle, Parks Resources Superintendent for City of Boise Parks and Recreation.

Construction to connect hikers and bikers on the Boise Bench to Ann Morrison Park — and the Greenbelt.

The Peasley Street project started in April, when crews cleared a path for the staircase. More recently, filling concrete footings to anchor the future staircase

Arkle says, “Even though it may look like it kind of takes a long time, there's a lot of things that’s had to happen in between moving dirt and putting in concrete and rebar, getting stairs in and getting it all inspected so it’s safe and open to the public.”

Parks and Rec officials plan to start installing the stairs early this fall. The goal is to enhance bike and pedestrian mobility to and from the park for over 1700 households impacting residents like Nick Miller.

"The pathway of the stairwell is going to save us not only time walking downtown but also we got to walk down capitol just to that little stretch there that's a little hairy sometimes so we're looking forward to it,” Miller said.

Like Miller, most cyclists I talked to say they use Capitol or Americana to get to town from the Bench, with this staircase connector aiming to offer an easier and safer commute for bikers and pedestrians.

“It creates shorter routes from the bench to Downtown to the parks that's great and at the same time we need to make sure that streets are safe for cyclists," Devin Mccommas, Executive Director for Boise Bicycle Project said. "We want to make sure that we're still pushing that Capitol has protection for cyclists and pedestrians and is a safe route alongside a great project from the city.”

The hope is to finish the Peasley Street connection by the end of the calendar year.