UPDATE 3:20 p.m.

• Courtesy ACHD

Traffic on Eagle Road is flowing again, as crews from Intermountain Gas quickly repaired a break in a gas main below Eagle. Construction crews hit a pipeline at the southwest corner of Eagle and Pine around noon. Intermountain said no customers were impacted by the main shutdown.

All traffic lanes were blocked for approximately three hours until Meridian police gave the all clear.

UPDATE 2:15 p.m.

• Courtesy ACHD

A major traffic alert is expected to stretch into this evening's rush hour as emergency crews deal with a broken gas main below Eagle Road. All traffic is being re-routed away from Eagle between Fairview and Pine.

Construction crews working in the area reportedly hit a natural gas pipeline around noon at the southwest corner Eagle and Pine. Crews have identified the source of the leak but the repair is expected to take some more time. Emergency crews determined that an evacuation was unnecessary.

UPDATE 1:45 p.m.

• Courtesy ACHD

Here's a look through the Ada County Highway District traffic cam at Eagle & Franklin, where emergency crews have blocked off all traffic on Eagle Road between Fairview and Pine because of a gas main break beneath Eagle Road.

Ada County Sheriff's officials said the repairs could take several hours to complete. Traffic is being encouraged to steer clear of the Treasure Valley's busiest road.

UPDATE 1:15 p.m.

• Courtesy ACHD

Here's a traffic cam at the corner of Eagle and Fairview. Traditionally, this intersection is bumper-to-bumper. As you can see, Meridian Police have blocked off all lanes while crews work below Eagle to repair a broken gas line. The tie-up is expected to last "for quite some time."

ORIGINAL POST 12:30 p.m.
A gas line break under Eagle Road has brought traffic to a standstill.

Meridian's police and fire departments are on the scene and currently blocking all lanes of traffic on Eagle Road between Fairview Avenue and Pine Street. Because the break is under the road, Andrea Dearden of the Ada County Sheriff's Office said the road is expected to "be shut down for quite some time."

Stay connected to Citydesk, Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Valley Regional Transit has just secured $260,000 to roll out a new bus line. Route 28, one of the most ambitious projects in VRT history, will serve Southwest Boise, including the Boise Towne Square Mall, the offices of U.S. Immigration and Social Security, and more than a half-dozen schools.

But the route has some members of the Boise City Council more than a bit nervous, especially if it turns out to be successful. We'll tell you why Boise's newest bus route is the reason for much hand-wringing, with one Boise Council member calling the pilot route "cruel," coming up in this week's BW.

Southwest Airlines has grounded a number of its 737s for emergency inspections. As of late morning, no Southwest delays had been reported at Boise Airport but postponements were continuing to sweep across the airline's system. Southwest grounded 79 planes and canceled about 300 flights Saturday in the wake of an incident in which a hole ripped open in an airplane cabin of a flight from Phoenix to Sacramento Friday night.

Last weekend Alaska/Horizon Air grounded dozens of flights following a massive failure of its computer systems.

Spring break is not going as planned as hundreds of passengers have been stranded in Boise and across the Western United States.

Alaska Airlines and its Horizon Air affiliate grounded dozens of flights in the wake of a massive failure of its computer systems.

More than 60 flights had been canceled by midday, six hours after the outage began. Alaska/Horizon is promising to rebook passengers without a fee.

Horizon had to reshuffle Boise passengers bound for Portland and Seattle today. Not all flights were canceled, and an airline spokesman urged travelers to check directly with Alaska/Horizon before heading to the airport.

Don't expect to see high occupancy vehicle lanes in the Treasure Valley anytime soon. While tens of thousands of commuters face I-84 each morning and afternoon, a proposal that would allow most Idaho communities to introduce HOV lanes got stuck in a legislative traffic jam this afternoon.

The House Transportation and Defense Committee voted 10-5 to kill a bill by Boise Democrat Phyllis King to expand Idaho's ability to build HOV lanes. Currently a 2009 law allows only counties with populations of 25,000 or less to introduce HOV lanes for carpoolers and buses. King told Citydesk that she crafted her measure after hearing from her Boise constituents on a need for HOVs.

Meridian Republican Marv Hagedorn led the charge against King's motion.

"I think we're opening up a door that we don't want open," said Hagedorn with his no vote.

But Moscow Democrat Shirley Ringo countered with her experience in other cities.

"HOVs work very well in Seattle," said Ringo. "It incentivizes carpooling."

But Republican Bob Nonini of Coeur d'Alene disagreed.

"Comparing Seattle to Boise to comparing apples to oranges," said Nonini. "We should hold this bill."

And so they did, in effect killing the measure. Republicans Leon Smith of Twin Falls and Richard Wills of Glenns Ferry joined the committee's three democrats in a losing effort.

In November, BW reported how there were little to no security restrictions for some 200,000 general aviation aircraft in the United States and how the Transportation Safety Administration asked operators to "police themselves" (BW,News, "High Anxiety," Nov. 17, 2010).

Friday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration reported that it was missing key information on who owns 119,000 GA aircraft, a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.

"Anybody with a roll of duct tape can put any number they want on an airplane," GA operator Steven Lathrop of Ellensburg, Wash., told the Associated Press.

AP reports that to update the FAA registry, the agency announced it would cancel all aircraft registrations over the next three years. Owners will have three months to re-register. Those who fail to re-register will lose their certificates, and their planes must be grounded.

In a stunning decision late Wednesday, a specially appointed hearing officer recommended to the director of the Idaho Transportation Department that full public hearings should be granted to opponents of four mega-loads. The oil-processing equipment has been sitting at the Port of Lewiston since early spring while ConocoPhillips made several attempts to get permits to traverse Idaho's U.S. Highway 12.

In a 19-page document, hearing officer Merlyn Clark wrote:
"Because there has been no final order in this contested case, the department must hold formal contested case hearings before the applicants' over-legal loads are allowed to travel under the permit. To allow the loads to travel before a formal contested case hearing is conducted would contravene the right of the parties to intervene and be heard upon the issues as provided under the Rules of Administrative Procedure."

Bill Stephens, spokesman for Conoco said the oil giant was disappointed.
"We do not believe the recommendation adequately accounts for the careful planning by ConcoPhillips, Emmert International [the transport company], the ITD, and other state and local agencies," said Stephens. "The recommendation also could delay an important part of our planned maintenance activities at the Billings refinery."

You can read the full report here.

Opponents of mega-loads won a battle late Wednesday. The ultimate issue of whether ConocoPhillips will be allowed to haul four giant pieces of oil refinery equipment across Idaho's U.S. Highway 12 is still to be considered, but a specially appointed hearing officer is recommending to the Idaho Transportation Department that opponents deserve, and should be granted, a full public hearing on the matter.

Late Friday, The Transportation Security Administration agreed to let uniformed airline pilots skip the controversial body scans and aggressive pat-downs at the Boise Airport and commercial airports across the nation.

The change comes in the wake of a firestorm from pilots, airline attendants and passengers, all upset over the TSA's ramped up security.

In this week's BW, we talk to the TSA and we learned that in spite of the new measures at commercial airports, feds don't mandate security for general aviation aircraft, which represents three of every four planes in the skies.

Even the head of the Transportation Security Administration admits that the new pat-downs are more invasive.

TSA Administrator John Pistole testified Wednesday morning before a Senate committee that he received the new pat-down as part of ramped up security measures. The pat-downs have been introduced along with new body-scanning technology at airports across the country, including Boise. Pistole said, yes, travelers have told him the new inspections have become too private, but he said the government must provide the best security for air travelers.

In this week's BW, read about how the TSA has increased security at commercial airports, while guidelines are not mandatory for general aviation aircraft, which represent three of every four planes in the skies.