Faced with a giant shortfall for road maintenance, the Idaho Transportation Board voted today to cut three programs starting in 2011, shifting their funding to pavement preservation. Gone will be the enhancement program, which funds bike paths, visitor centers and historic kiosks; the congestion program, which has paid for transit vehicles, street sweepers and traffic signal coordinating devices; and the planning program, which pays for corridor and regional studies. Suspending future funding of the three programs will allow about $12 million a year to be added to the $80 million scheduled for pavement preservation each year for the next four years. Board Chairman Darrell Manning called it a “difficult but necessary decision.” Click below to read the board’s full announcement from its meeting today in Lewiston.

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