What is wrong with this picture?

Last July, the State Transportation Board announced that construction of several local highway improvement projects would be postponed due to lack of funding.

These projects were re-categorized as "Horizon" projects, a vague new category meaning "over the horizon", i.e., out of sight. The reconstruction of the old Dover Bridge was one of many projects put on the back burner.

Lo and behold — last week the Idaho Transportation Department had to scramble to patch a big hole in the eastbound lane of the antiquated Dover Bridge (Daily Bee, Jan. 31). According to the article, a chunk of bridge pavement had broken away and was apparently dangling over the railroad tracks below.

According to the Bee, the antiquated bridge has been assigned a safety rating of two points out of a possible 100 in a transportation sufficiency rating system.

Clearly this rating is unacceptable for a structure that is used by all traffic entering Sandpoint from the west, including school buses and large trucks. The project would cost about $25 million.

We think it's time for ITD and Federal Highways to transfer some of the $60 million in federal funds earmarked for construction of the highway in Sand Creek to the Dover Bridge.

Dover Mayor Randy Curless rightfully expressed extreme concern about the potential for disaster due to the dilapidated condition of the bridge.

Shouldn't public safety be the department's highest priority?

Meanwhile, the Sand Creek project continues to be bogged down in the federal and state permitting processes and land acquisition negotiations with the BNSF railroad, neither of which show any sign of being resolved in the foreseeable future. And resolution of NICAN's legal challenge is likely several years away.

The Sand Creek project is a middle segment in a four phase Highway 95 widening project. The southern phases (Long Bridge and Long Bridge to Sagle) are not even in preliminary planning. It would be a "Bridge to Nowhere."

According to ITD the total budget for the "byway" is more than $92 million, including about $60 million for construction. Wouldn't this money be better spent elsewhere?

Liz Sedler

Sandpoint

NICAN