Sun Road money is disappearing fast

By CHRIS PETERSON / For the Pilot

Reconstruction of historic alpine highway has been expensive

Glacier National Park expects to have spent the entire $50 million appropriation for the Going-to-the-Sun Road reconstruction by the end of next summer.

The appropriation was an earmarked fund for the road and was separate of an additional $32 million of National Park Service funding that has also gone toward the highway over the past several years. The earmarked funds were garnered by Sen. Max Baucus in 2005.

The $50 million was expected to last five years, but now it's only expected to last four years, Park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt said. Costs for the road have risen considerably, she said. The initial cost estimate to rebuild the aging and historic highway was $140 million to $170 million. Estimates are at least double that now.

Next summer, crews from HK Construction of Idaho are expected to start reconstruction and rehabilitation from Big Bend to Logan Pass — a stretch of about three more miles. That project will use up what's left of the $50 million.

To date, the Park, in concert with the Federal Highway Administration, has reconstructed a section of the road from the West Side Tunnel to Haystack Creek — all told about 3.6 miles. Triple Arches and short sections on both sides of Logan Pass that have also seen work were completed before the $50 million appropriation.

The Park also built a transit center, purchased shuttle buses and revamped the West Entrance.

East of the Divide, crews have rebuilt the road below the East Side Tunnel, but those funds were from a separate pot of emergency money because the highway was damaged by severe flooding.

Damage on the west side from flooding was also fixed under emergency funding.

Repair to the Sun Road has been expensive. Masons dismantle its historic rock walls, mark the stones, and then put them back together after the roadbed has been reinforced.

Crews have also done extensive drilling and bolting of cliff faces above the highway to stabilize the Park's notoriously unstable rock.

Vanderbilt said FHWA and Park Service officials will look at ways to cut costs, but just how that will be accomplished won't be finalized until next year. In the meantime, reconstruction work will continue through next summer.

Additional funding from Park Service coffers could be found in 2010 when Congress takes up a federal highways spending plan. How much the Sun Road project will receive, however, remains to be seen.

While the Sun Road has proven expensive, it's also an economic engine for the valley. In summer, with its entire length open, an estimated $1 million a day is brought to the local economy by tourists visiting the historic road.