The sad truth about Dover Bridge

Ask somebody who knows a thing or two about the Dover Bridge what it will take to get it replaced. If they're being up front, the answers usually go something like this:

"Somebody dying."

"A collapse."

The answers usually come packaged with a certain amount of jest, but there is an unmistakable shade of grim truth in the responses. The U.S. Highway 2 bridge is literally being rattled and bashed to pieces and there is no money in sight to fix it.

Those who have lobbied strenuously to have the bridge replaced suspect money will miraculously materialize only after there is a catastrophic failure, one that severs a national highway, causes a train wreck on the railroad tracks below or kills somebody.

The replacement project was as done as projects get. Then came news that the Idaho Transportation Department had to reassess its priorities in light of escalating construction costs and a $20 billion backlog in transportation projects.

The Dover Bridge, not to mention other overdue highway projects in Bonner County, suddenly fell off the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan and landed in "Horizons," a long-range capital improvement program.

The reclassification effectively puts a new Dover Bridge in a holding pattern for six to 10 years. The bridge was built in 1937 and has a sufficiency rating of 2, a breathtakingly low rating given the scale goes to 100.

Even the name "Horizons" has a bad ring to it. The ground under your feet may change as you walk toward a horizon, but you'll never reach it. It's always way off in the distance.

The Idaho Transportation Board needs to act by taking Dover Bridge off the shelf and putting it back on the STIP by any means necessary. Sacrificing a gridlock mitigation project in the south would save lives in the north.

Ask somebody who knows a thing or two about the history of District 1 highway projects. The answer usually goes something like this:

"It's our turn."

? Keith Kinnaird is a reporter and news editor.