Sun Road could see work on both sides
The Going-to-the-Sun Road could very well see repairs on both sides of the Divide by next year. That seems to be the most palatable proposal as the road will see $27.6 million in stimulus funding starting this summer, but that funding also comes with strict timelines.
Glacier Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright floated the idea of working on both sides of the Divide to several members of the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce during a meeting Monday.
The Park will utilize the stimulus funding to complete work on the highway from Big Bend to Logan Pass. Remaining federal dollars will fund work on the east side and the Park is also hopeful it will get Department of Transportation grants. If the grant funding goes through, the critical alpine sections could be completed by 2013 to 2014. Cartwright said the Park has also implemented a more streamlined approach to the rehabiliation. When he became superintendent the estimate to complete the road was roughly $280 million. That figure is now down to $178 million.
Glacier will do less rock scaling and rock bolting than originally planned and will not rehab sections that are already considered stable.
Cartwright said the Park had considered other options for getting the Sun Road work completed, but they hadn't been very well received by the general public.
They included:
• Closing the road earlier in September. For every day the road is completely closed, it equates to three full construction days. Right now, the road closes in mid-September from one side or the other to Logan Pass. By upping the closure to say, Sept. 10 or 11, it would give crews that many more days to work on the highway. But September is also one of the best times to see the Park, and this idea wasn't gaining much support.
• Close the road earlier at night and in the morning. Under this plan, which is allowed for in the reconstruction Environmental Impact Statement, the Park could close the road from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. This would give crews longer to work, since it gets light out early and stays that way until 10 p.m. in the summer. But this idea wasn't proving popular at all with businesspeople or visitors.
The option of working on both sides of the Divide at the same time seems to be the most workable at this point. It would mean about a 20-minute delay through each work zone — a total of 40 to 45 minutes for someone driving completely over the road — but as long as people knew about it going into it, they don't seem to mind, business leaders here agreed. It is, after all, a once- in-a-lifetime drive for most visitors.
Chamber members here said they would also like to see crews work on the weekends in the summertime. Freedom Bank President Don Bennett said there are plenty of people in the construction field who are ready and willing to work at reasonable rates in this down economy.
While HK Construction of Idaho holds the general contract for the project, a lot of subcontract work is also expected to be avaliable.