Congress OKs Sun Road money
A construction crew works Thursday on the outside lane of Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road between the East Side Tunnel and Logan Pass. Some $50 million in funding for additional road work is awaiting presidential approval.
It was lost for a year, but $50 million for rebuilding Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road has finally been found.
The funding cleared Congress after a Senate vote late Thursday and is headed to the president for final approval, said Barrett Kaiser, a spokesman for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
"It's a done deal," Kaiser said.
Baucus steered the money through Congress last year as a major down payment on a long-term Sun Road reconstruction project. But the Federal Highway Administration refused to spend the money because of a technical error in how the legislation was worded.
Baucus and Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., have sought various ways of restoring the funding for the last year, finally succeeding with it being included in a pension-fund bill.
Baucus missed Thursday's Senate vote because he is with his family, mourning the death of his nephew, Phillip E. Baucus, a Marine who was killed in Iraq.
But Kaiser said the senator is pleased the Sun Road funding has been secured.
"He's worked for a long time to get this fixed and wasn't about to let a bureaucratic mistake get in the way," Kaiser said. "He wasn't going to let these dollars slip away because of a technical error."
Restoration of the funding is a "huge" development, said John Kilpatrick, Glacier's facilities manager.
"It appears that we've got roughly 70 to 80 percent of what we need at this point, and that's substantial," Kilpatrick said.
The park has secured a total of about $82 million - the balance coming from the National Park Service federal lands highway program - to proceed with the reconstruction project as planned. Park officials expect to secure more funding in the latter years of the project, which is expected to span six to eight years.
Kilpatrick said the project involves three major phases, all in different stages of planning and development. The largest goes to bid this fall, with work starting next spring.
Project planners have proceeded with optimism that somehow the $50 million would be restored, Kilpatrick said.
"With projects like this you have to remain an optimist," he said.
This summer, heavy reconstruction is under way on the outside lane of Sun Road near the East Side Tunnel.
They are redoing the guardwall and the road foundation. What was there was basically sliding off the mountain, Kilpatrick said.
That work, which restricts travel to the inside lane, is expected to be finished this fall, Kilpatrick said.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com