Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Officials offer differing views on H-75 project

Ribi disappointed expansion is being shelved; McCleary urges patience


By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Members of the Blaine County Regional Transportation Committee seemed reluctant this week to comment on Idaho Transportation Department plans to shelve completion of a long-planned expansion of state Highway 75 in Blaine County.

Of five committee members contacted on Monday, only Sun Valley City Councilman Nils Ribi and Blaine County Commission Chairwoman Angenie McCleary offered comment by Idaho Mountain Express press deadline Tuesday afternoon.

Ribi said he is disappointed with last week's decision and believes it illustrates state government's failure to adequately plan for and take care of its road infrastructure.

"We do all this planning and then they just say they're not going to do it—there's no money," Ribi said. "It's just very unfortunate when you look at the condition of our roads up here. People are going to start saying why should I go up to this resort and bang up my car getting there.

"The state benefits from what we do up here, all the sales tax we generate," Ribi said. "It would be nice if they would follow up and take care of our infrastructure."

Some members of the committee said they were surprised by a story in the Friday, Aug. 12 edition of the Idaho Mountain Express. The story reported that ITD officials were postponing completion of the project because of an anticipated cut in federal funding. The cut could be as high as 30 percent and possibly as soon as the start of Fiscal Year 2012.

The expansion project has been in the planning stages for more than a decade. It would improve and widen a 27-mile stretch of Highway 75 between Timmerman Junction south of Bellevue and Saddle Road in north Ketchum. The project is estimated to cost $250 million, but ITD has only $29 million for the work, most of it from congressional set-aside money obtained a few years ago by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho.

Local ITD officials said last week that the $29 million in hand will be used to complete widening of 3.25 miles of road south of Ketchum, a 1.5 mile wetlands mitigation highway relocation north of Ketchum and design of a new bridge across the Big Wood River south of Elkhorn Road. ITD said the rest of the work will be shelved while the agency focuses resources on repairing existing roads and bridges throughout the state.

The decision was not announced at a meeting of the Regional Transportation Committee on Aug. 4, when ITD District Engineer Devin Rigby discussed the possibility of major cutbacks in federal funding. He hinted that the Highway 75 expansion project would be impacted, but no one on the committee asked him to explain.

The information was released to the Express after later telephone inquiries to ITD and in an interview on Aug. 11 with ITD spokesman Nathan Jerke and Highway 75 Expansion Project Manager Mike Scott.

Ribi said Tuesday that he is not criticizing local ITD officials, whom he characterized as 'doing the best job they can."

"It's at the higher level where I think it needs to come into play," he said. "I just hope our governor and state legislature wake up and looks at this seriously."

McCleary said she wants to wait and see what actually happens with funding.

"I think we need to be patient until we know what the federal funding will look like in 2012," she said. "I certainly understand that ITD's priorities will have to be maintenance for the existing infrastructure."

Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, has been involved in the highway expansion project for several years. She said she remains optimistic that the project will eventually be completed.

"We still don't know what the federal funding will be; we're moving forward in the north," Jaquet said, referring to the Highway 75 expansion that will be completed. "A few years ago we came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to happen all at once and was going to be done incrementally."

Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com




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