Martin Luther King, Jr. Way on Idaho State University campus will be closed through the end of September or later

POCATELLO – The City of Pocatello and Idaho State University have announced that Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and 9th Avenue on the Idaho State University campus will not be open when the ISU fall semester begins.

Officials expect Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, from Cesar Chavez Avenue (Eight Avenue) and Memorial Drive (15th Avenue) will continue to be closed to vehicular traffic through late September to early October. The road construction is a City of Pocatello and Idaho Transportation Department project. The vehicular detour route is via East Carter Street.

Although the street will be closed to vehicular traffic, sidewalks and parking lots will be open, as well as access to the Oboler Library, Rendezvous Complex, College of Technology buildings and the Dental Hygiene Building.

Elements of the project include: narrowing the street, adding bicycle lanes, new planters and stormwater bioswales, wider sidewalks, new pedestrian ramps and crosswalks. Another change will be converting Ninth Avenue – in front of the Oboler Library from Martin Luther King Jr. Way to Lovejoy – into a one-way street. In addition the Jack Wheatley family has funded landscaped sitting areas along the street, over 50 new trees, and thousands of new perennial plants.

Other projects occurring this summer in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Way corridor include a repair to the steam utility tunnel that runs underneath the street and a landscape project featuring a new berm from the entrance of the Reed Gymnasium up the hill to the east end of the tennis courts.