Stimulus for Glacier's Sun Road?

Group pushes to have park project get federal jobs money

By JIM MANN / Daily Inter Lake

The National Parks Conservation Association is campaigning to have Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road get a piece of a whopping job stimulus package that's expected from Congressional Democrats and the incoming Obama administration next year.

The package is expected to include as much as $700 billion in spending, with an emphasis on public infrastructure and energy projects.

The association, a nonprofit national parks advocacy group, wants Congress and the new administration to recognize "shovel ready" infrastructure projects in parks such as Glacier.

In a recent report, the NPCA identified 10 priority projects across the country, and Going-to-the-Sun Road is the largest. To advance a comprehensive reconstruction project that got started on the historic highway last year, more than $21 million is needed, according to the report.

Will Hammerquist, the Glacier field representative for the association, said Sun Road "is lining up to be the number one park economic stimulus project in the country."

Last week, association board member Denis Gavin testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, stressing infrastructure needs in national parks.

"The National Park Service has approximately $1 billion of projects that clearly are 'ready to go' and are focused on restoring historic structures, repairing national park infrastructure, greening park facilities and fixing trails," Gavin said. "We estimate these projects would produce upwards of 22,000 jobs."

Gavin went on to cite Sun Road as "perhaps the most dramatic example" of national park infrastructure needs.

The road was opened 75 years ago, and has since endured falling rocks, avalanches, severe weather and heavy traffic.

"Reconstruction began in 2007, but the funding has not kept pace with the project," Gavin said. "More than $20 million in work is ready to begin if funding could be made available."

Jack Gordon, Glacier's landscape architect and coordinator of the Sun Road project with the Federal Highway Administration, said the funding identified by the NPCA likely would go toward reconstruction of a road segment between Logan Pass and Siyeh Bend, east of the Continental Divide.

"We're pretty far along with that as far as design," Gordon said.

Next summer, reconstruction initially will focus on finishing a segment between Crystal Point and Haystack Creek. By midsummer, work will begin on another stretch from Big Bend to Logan Pass, west of the divide.

Part of the $21 million being pursued by the NPCA might go toward finishing another stretch west of the pass, but most would go toward the Logan Pass-to-Siyeh Bend stretch, work that's expected to take two years to finish.

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