Sun Road money may be missing

Federal agency says $50 million appropriation didn't happen

A $50 million appropriation for rehabilitating Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road may be as valuable as the fake, oversized check for the project that Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., presented to the park's superintendent last summer.

But not if Baucus gets his way in a standoff with the Federal Highway Administration, which maintains the $50 million isn't there: The spending was authorized by Congress last year but it wasn't actually appropriated.

Baucus doesn't see it that way.

"Max is absolutely livid about this," said Barrett Kaiser, the senator's spokesman in Billings. "The administration screwed up royally … The Federal Highway Administration were advisers to Max on this language and they approved it. They approved it and said the language was fine and now they are changing their tune."

The lack of funding has become a significant issue for park officials, with practical implications for a road reconstruction project that was expected to take six to eight years to complete.

"The big point here is that without the $50 million, it just extends the project out from where we thought it would be," Park Superintendent Mick Holm said.

The most recent estimate is the project could take 11 years to complete, but Holm said he is reluctant to present that as a realistic timeline because the funding picture could change significantly, depending on the actions of Baucus and the Federal Highway Administration.

Dan Donovan, director of program administration for the agency's Western Federal Lands Highway Division in Vancouver, Wash., explained the situation like this:

The $50 million was authorized in the federal transportation bill that establishes the highway administration's funding program for five years. The bill includes individual projects secured by lawmakers, many of them with specific language about funding sources within the federal budget.

But some of them, including Sun Road, do not.

"This time there was a lot more projects included than there was funding available for," Donovan said.

Funding for some projects, including the Sun Road fix, will depend on an annual appropriations bill, Donovan said.

The Sun Road funding package is basically authorized to receive up to $10 million a year over the five-year term of the Transportation Bill, but Donovan said his agency has determined spending must be provided annually by Congress over the next four years.

A $10 million appropriation was not approved for the current fiscal year, so the remaining authorization is for $40 million, Donovan said.

But Kaiser said Baucus is pushing for an immediate $50 million fix.

"Max disagrees with their new position on this funding and doesn't think a legislative fix is necessary," Kaiser said. "But he's going to try for a legislative fix anyway as soon as possible, while at the same time leaning heavily on the administration to reconsider how they are interpreting this language."

Last August, Baucus presented a symbolic $50 million check to Holm during a ceremony at the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce. "Every once in a while, something comes along that's really big, and this is one," Baucus said at the time.

Baucus also presented a symbolic $30 million check for the U.S. 93 bypass project around Kalispell.

Kaiser said the bypass funding, which requires state matching money, is secure.

But the Sun Road funding was in a category of its own, one that specified that "the federal share of the costs of the project … shall be 100 percent."

Kaiser said the highway administration is interpreting language in the bill to "mean that the dollars aren't there, but we maintain that they are."

Despite Baucus' position, the situation requires Glacier Park officials to proceed as if the $50 million is not available.

That leaves about $8 million a year available for Sun Road reconstruction from a separate National Park Road Program fund. Holm said there is also $13 million available for measures aimed at lessening the impacts of a long-term construction project on park visitors and the gateway communities next to Glacier.

The park's mitigation package includes construction of a new transit center, scheduled to begin this year, along with an expanded public transit system.

"The mitigation money is there and solid and we're going ahead with that," Holm said.

Planning for Sun Road reconstruction has been under way for nearly 10 years, an effort that has produced volumes of reports and studies.

The most important of those documents was a final environmental impact study that established a strategy, terms and conditions for the project. The study was largely based on recommendations from a citizens advisory committee appointed by the Secretary of Interior to determine the best ways to rebuild the alpine stretch of Sun Road.

The presumed lack of $50 million has led to "debate" between the National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration about whether the study needs to be revised or amended to account for a protracted construction schedule, Holm said.

"That debate is going on right now," he said, adding the National Park Service believes that the study is still valid.

If the reconstruction project carries on longer than prescribed in the study, that would run counter to the recommendations from the advisory committee, said Randy Ogle, a Kalispell attorney who was chairman of that panel.

"That approach was the quickest and least expensive to get the job done and leave the road open" for summertime use, Ogle said. "And if they are going to prolong it, it's just going to be more disruptive for people using the road and traveling to the park for a longer period of time. And it's going to cost more money. The longer they drag it out, the more it's going to cost."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com