Karcher & Franklin Boulevard intersection getting new roundabout

Franklin Boulevard and Karcher Road intersection is closed through November to install a new roundabout. Other than driver inconveniences not far from a freeway offramp, it also affects the response of the Nampa Fire Department with Station 3 one mile away.

• Franklin Boulevard has been deemed a critical freight corridor by the City of Nampa.
• Nampa Fire will shift response areas with Station 3 no longer having easy access to the freeway.
• The interseciton is expected to be reopened in November 2024.

( Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

A critical freight corridor — that's what the City of Nampa has deemed Franklin Boulevard around the I-84 area.

Franklin from around Garrity to Birch is filled with industrial complexes. As growth happens throughout Nampa and the state, roundabouts are becoming an ever more popular option to keep traffic moving.

For first responders, the conversion of intersections can cause inconveniences with their response times.

"With a city that's developing and growing we deal with road construction a lot. With the roundabouts, one of the things we've learned is how to adjust our response," Battalion Chief David O'Connor explains.

Detour options include simply avoiding the Franklin Boulevard by using Northside. The posted detour option is to use Fargo and Devlin to go around the closed intersection.

Shortly before the construction of the Karcher/Franklin roundabout began there was also a new stoplight installed at Madison and Karcher to control traffic flow.

With the volume of heavy freight traffic that requires wide turns, a 2021 grant application from the City of Nampa to ITD says that roundabouts offer far fewer points of conflict — incidences where vehicles are moving against each other instead of with each other that roundabouts offer.

"Is there a preference between roundabouts or the traditional intersection, or does it matter?" I asked the Battalion Chief.

"As a battalion chief I don't think it really matters. It's one of those things that if you look at the 'Google machine' it talks about 1, they're safer — 90% fewer fatalities, 75% fewer traumatic injuries. And that's because of how they're set up and developed where you won't have head on collision where you would at an intersection."