Don't let politics derail overdue bypass project

The Idaho Transportation Board visited Sandpoint Wednesday to hopefully take a long look at the traffic disaster that is U.S. 95.

In Sandpoint, U.S. 95 takes on other names like Fifth Avenue, Cedar Street, Pine Street and First Avenue, but it is still Idaho’s north-south highway.

That’s right, Idaho’s north-south economic artery winds itself through the tourniquet that is Sandpoint.

As the board was riding through town in an air-conditioned van, it is our hope the van at some point was pinned between a tractor-trailer hauling pigs and one hauling cattle like many of us are.

Unfortunately, we have gotten used to the onslaught of traffic here. The past few weeks have been terrible with promises of more traffic jams, odors and accidents on the horizon.

It stinks to drive in Sandpoint right now.

At a June 19 meeting in Boise another type of odor emanated from the ITD board.

Most of the board members collectively rolled their eyes while voting 5-1 to approve the $98.4 million bid to build the Sand Creek Byway.

The project would be Idaho’s single largest project in history.

From grumbling over voting as a favor to complaints over the higher price tag — caused by rising steel and construction costs — board members lined up to take shots at the project.

Others complained that District 1, of which Sandpoint is a part, secured 24 percent of the state’s funding for the past four years, while other districts were only getting 12-15 percent. Historically, far more money has ended up in the southern end of the state than in the north.

There hasn’t been this much bull excrement thrown around here since the last cattle truck through town took a corner a little fast on the corner of Pine and First Avenue. The truth is the Sand Creek Byway has as much to do with Sandpoint as it does with Ponderay and the rest of North Idaho and Western Montana.

To think that this board in this state will come up with hundreds of millions of dollars for establishing an alternative route is ridiculous. Board members proved that.

Board members’ comments smack of politics. ITD would rather see the Sand Creek Byway in its rearview mirror and use the $98.4 million elsewhere, preferably in southern Idaho.

If you believe all is well with the dangerous traffic situation in Sandpoint right now, you now apparently have friends on the ITD board.

If you believe Sand Creek Byway is the last, best chance to solve Sandpoint’s Highway 95 traffic quagmire with any funding from the state, you are probably right.

It’s time to build the Sand Creek Byway.

David Keyes is the

publisher of the Daily Bee.