ITD board OKs $98.4M bypass bid

NICAN pursuing federal appeal

SANDPOINT — The Idaho Transportation Board has approved a $98.4 million bid for construction of the proposed U.S. Highway 95 bypass.

The approval of Parsons RCI’s bid cleared the board Thursday on a 5-1 vote.

Neil Miller, the board’s representative for southeastern Idaho, cast the dissenting vote, according to Mel Coulter, an Idaho Transportation Department spokesman in Boise.

“They didn’t do a roll call vote and they didn’t have any detailed discussion about why he was opposed to it and why the others were in favor of it,” Coulter said.

Board members were not immediately available for comment after their business meeting concluded. Minutes from the meeting also were unavailable on Thursday afternoon.

Parsons RCI, which is based in Sumner, Wash., emerged as the apparent low bidder when the construction proposals were opened earlier this month. Parsons was one of only two companies which bid on the proposed Sand Creek Byway.

The highway re-routing plan enjoys passionate support, but it also has a passionate legion of opponents.

The bypass is intended to alleviate traffic congestion in Sandpoint, but opponents maintain it will destroy the waterfront and environmental resources without solving the traffic problem.

The North Idaho Community Action Network sued the Federal Highway Administration over its approval of the project, but a U.S. District Court judge rejected the suit this spring.

On Tuesday, NICAN filed an emergency motion for an injunction pending an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said Liz Sedler, the group’s executive director. The motion aims to prevent construction of the bypass from starting until the appeal is taken up by the appeals court.

Sedler said NICAN is “confident” the court of appeals will grant the injunction because she said ITD’s documentation for the project falls short of National Environmental Policy Act regulations.

“NEPA was adopted by Congress to ensure that decisions regarding actions affecting the environment are unbiased and based on high degree of scientific integrity, among other requirements,” she said.