Highway Construction Bogs Down State Officials Take Some Hits From Unhappy Residents

After a tour of Bonner County’s bumpy roads and miles of construction sites, Idaho Transportation Department board members took some verbal lumps from residents.

Most of the 30 people who met the board Thursday complained about a partly finished section of U.S. Highway 95 north of Sandpoint.

The $6.8 million project has been riddled with problems. Part of the roadbed has sunk into a bog, and construction has polluted Sand Creek and destroyed nearly four acres of wetlands.

“We recognize we’ve got some problems up here and our department is not innocent,” said transportation board Chairman Leon Smith Jr.

“We want to know what we can do to correct the problems and not let this happen again.”

Several residents scolded the department for having had the new section of highway designed by engineers unfamiliar with Bonner County.

The result was tons of fill being dumped into a peat bog, causing the road to sink more than 10 feet and heave adjacent wetlands 13 feet above the surrounding ground.

“How could you miss that? How could you not know there was a peat bog there?” asked resident Mark Elliott.

Bernice Waits, who lives next to the sunken road, said she had suggested engineers build a bridge because she knew the bog was there.

“We drilled a well and went 480 feet without hitting anything but peat and quicksand,” she said. “That 480 feet is a long ways to fill.”

“We are concerned if you continue building, we are going to have a big problem on our side of the road,” added Waits’ husband, Robert.

District engineer Tom Baker admitted the bog was an oversight and said no test drillings had been made in that area.

“That area wasn’t drilled, and it’s our fault,” Baker said. The department plans now to put a plastic support on the sinking road and use lighter-weight fill to finish the job. He said the soft, mushy soil near the Waits’ home will be removed and replaced with a solid base.

Other residents were more concerned about tons of sediment from the project that eroded into Sand Creek and Lake Pend Oreille.

“I used to fish Sand Creek and it used to be very much alive. Now it’s a dead stream,” said Duane Parsons. “We want it repaired.”

Diane Williams, from the Clark Fork Pend Oreille Coalition, said so much sediment washed into the creek that boats no longer can get through the mouth of the stream.

“The Transportation Department was warned about erosion problems, but the attitude from it has been nothing but resistance toward other state agencies and locals,” she said.

The coalition and five residents filed a complaint with highway officials last week, saying the state repeatedly has violated water quality laws.

Williams also said most of the work to correct problems was completed in the last two weeks, just before the transportation board’s tour.

Baker said work to prevent further erosion has been done. But he did not commit to repairing the damage to Sand Creek.

The board did agree to have a specialist meet with locals and plan ways to clean up the creek.

“The problems may go deeper than we perceive. We don’t know; that’s why we are here today,” said board chairman Smith. “We want to know what you know.”

The meeting provided no solid answers, but the board did agree to work more closely with the community and revamp parts of its highway design process.

The board will meet again today at the Edgewater Resort to talk about construction and traffic problems on U.S. Highway 2.