GEOLOGICAL AND TRANSPORTATION HISTORY REVEALED THROUGH IDAHO ROADCUT HAZARD STUDY

The state of Idaho contains a landscape formed by a variety of geological events:

• volcanic hotspots,
• basalt eruptions through large rifts,
• convergent plate boundaries,
• divergent plate rifting,
• large water body deposits, and
• weather, to name a few.

A roadcut hazard evaluation and maintenance project revealed several of these processes. The evaluations also led to the state’s transportation history in answering the question of why roads were built through such hazardous pathways. The answers were found in the state’s geopolitical history, which shaped infrastructure decisions.