Highway spending approved

Senate OKs measure that maintains funding for U.S. 93 bypass

The Daily Inter Lake and The Associated Press

The U.S. Senate approved a bill Wednesday that includes tens of millions of dollars for highway construction projects in Montana.

The $464 billion bill, which passed 81-15, closed out several unfinished domestic-agency budgets that had been delayed by election-year pressures.

The bill froze most budgets at 2006 levels. However, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and others made an exception for highway spending, restoring that funding to fiscal 2007 levels.

"This is very good news for Montana," Baucus said according to a press release. "Had these cuts gone through, we would have seen a major setback to projects already in the pipeline. I wasn't about to let Congress cut highway funding. It's our lifeblood in Montana."

Had the transportation cuts been approved, they would have reduced federal highway spending by more than $3.4 billion nationally, including $46 million for Montana projects.

The cuts would have affected several projects in Northwest Montana, including the U.S. 93 bypass west of Kalispell. The bill would have cut $1.5 million from the $30 million that Baucus had secured for the project.

"At a time when we're fighting like heck to secure additional dollars for the bypass, we couldn't take a hit to money we've already secured," Baucus said. "We dodged a bullet with this bill as it relates to highway money."

Other projects that would have been affected, comparing the approved fiscal '07 allocation with what it would have been, include:

. A new bridge to improve Montana 89 near Browning - $2 million vs. $1.6 million

. Reconstruction of the U.S. 2 bridge across the Two Medicine River, near East Glacier - $6.25 million vs. $5 million

. Widening U.S. 93 from Ninepipe to Ronan - $2 million vs. $1.6 million.

. Improvements to the Swamp Creek section of U.S. 2 east of Libby - $1.5 million vs. $1.2 million

. Pedestrian trails in Whitefish - $750,000 vs. $600,000

The bill now goes to President Bush, who has indicated that he will sign it.