Sandpoint newcomer has vision of tunnel

SANDPOINT—Steve Potter doesn’t yet live here, but he thinks it may take an outsider to solve the town’s longstanding traffic troubles.

That’s because Potter, a San Francisco Bay-area software company owner, isn’t mixed up in the venomous politics about how to get cattle trucks, log haulers and tractor trailers off the picturesque main drag full of restaurants, shops and a historic theater. To him the answer is simple: Bore a tunnel underneath Sandpoint.

So far, his one-man plan has gotten a cool reception. Some people have treated him downright nasty, he said. But Potter understands he’s cannonballing into a debate that has divided the eclectic resort town for nearly 60 years.

“If I do have the answer, maybe we should rejoice,” Potter said this week while sipping coffee on the Starbucks patio that overlooks Sand Creek, the body of water where the Idaho Transportation Department plans to build a byway, giving drivers a way to get through Sandpoint without bottlenecking in the one-way downtown traffic.

“This is an isolated county in an isolated state,” said Potter, whose schooling is in mechanical engineering. “There’s construction that’s routine in other places that’s never come to Idaho at all.”

Potter discovered Sandpoint while road-tripping around the Northwest. He’s buying a condo at The Seasons at Sandpoint, a new development on a thin peninsula sandwiched between Sand Creek and Lake Pend Oreille. The Sand Creek Byway would run right past his back windows.

That’s what sparked his initial involvement in finding an alternative route. He insists his main goal, which aligns with residents who oppose the byway, is to preserve Sand Creek while finding a way to get truck traffic off First Avenue.

He thinks residents who oppose the Sand Creek Byway will embrace the tunnel idea. Some opponents already are backing an alterative for a recessed byway that would follow a route similar to Potter’s tunnel.

Potter pitches the tunnel plan using the name Citizens for the Sandpoint Tunnel, yet he won’t disclose the members until after the Sandpoint City Council has a special meeting on the proposal Sept. 27. He’s still waiting for key endorsements.

The director of North Idaho Community Action Network, a local group that has sued to stop the Sand Creek Byway, wasn’t available for comment. Yet Liz Sedler has told news media the tunnel is likely a feasible alternative.

Peter Mico – owner of Spud’s Rotisserie and Grill, which overlooks Sand Creek – is opposed to the current location of the byway. He agrees some route is needed to get traffic out of downtown. He is intrigued with Potter’s vision and glad there are now two alternatives to the Sand Creek alignment.

“I’m very curious, very interested,” Mico said.

Using his own money – just a few hundred dollars, he said – Potter has cobbled a conceptual plan for two tunnels, separated by a concrete wall. Each tube would hold two lanes of traffic. The tunnels would begin at the intersection of Superior Street and First Avenue. Traffic heading north on U.S. Highway 95, wanting to skirt downtown, would enter the tunnel near the Conoco gas station just past the Long Bridge.

The tunnel would head west, directly under Superior Avenue, for about eight bocks before curving north under a residential area. The tunnel would dump traffic near the intersection of Pine Street and Euclid Avenue, near the 9th Grade Center. From there, drivers could connect to existing Fifth Avenue, which already is four lanes, or to the Dover Highway. The other tunnel would carry traffic heading south on Highway 95.

It’s possible tunnel construction could displace some homes in the area where the tunnel curves. The recessed option also would relocate homes.

Potter’s packet includes a memo from Hatch Mott MacDonald, a Seattle-based engineering firm that specializes in tunnel projects. Based on Potter’s rough outline, the company says the Sandpoint tunnel appears doable. Potter said he got the letter for free and acknowledges that engineering and geotechnical studies are needed before the true feasibility is known.

The engineering firm said it recently built a similar, four-lane tunnel in New Jersey for about $100 million. That’s comparable to the Sand Creek Byway proposal, which is budgeted at $90 million.

Potter unveiled his tunnel template last month to the Idaho Transportation Board.

The board quickly said it’s too late for any alternative.

Department Spokeswoman Barbara Babic said Friday the public was highly involved in hashing out the design, and that process is over.

“At some point you have to stop and say, ‘OK, we are going to build it,’” Babic said.

The byway is stalled until the state can get a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Idaho Department of Lands to dredge and fill portions of Sand Creek.

The agencies are soon expected to open a comment period and have a public hearing. Babic hopes to start the bid process this winter with construction beginning next year.

Some locals in downtown Sandpoint on Thursday said they just want the bypass to get going after decades of talk and bickering.

Del Hathaway sat outside his barber shop waiting for a customer. He rolled his eyes when asked about the tunnel.

“What a joke,” he said. “Only an idiot engineer would come up with that. It’s flat asinine.”

He doubts a tunnel is doable because of Sandpoint’s high ground.

Mayor Ray Miller also questions the cost and groundwater. He suspects the tunnel would have to get water permits because it would drain water into Sand Creek and the lake.

He added that Potter isn’t adding anything new to a debate that started in the 1950s. There’s been other, disregarded tunnel proposals.

“I would imagine it’s hard to get people to jump on the idea if you don’t have facts and figures and more than just concepts,” Miller said. “I have an open mind and I’m ready to hear. But so far I haven’t seen any meat and potatoes.”