Daines hopeful highway bill will pass this year

Rep. Steve Daines said last week that he was hopeful a new highway bill could be hammered out by the end of the year — legislation that would presumably provide enough funding to finish reconstruction work on Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road.

To date, about $140 million has been spent on the historic highway, but about $20 million more is needed to finish the job. The last highway bill, passed in 2012, didn’t specifically earmark funding for the Sun Road, but it did provide $480 million for roads in national parks.

Reconstruction of the Sun Road’s alpine section was finished last year. Crews this year will continue work on a nine-mile section on the east side from Siyeh Bend to Rose Creek Bridge.

But the Park still needs funding to finish up work from Rising Sun to St. Mary on the east side and from West Glacier to Avalanche Creek on the west side.

This summer will mark the first time in seven years that there will be no construction delays on the west side to Logan Pass. All road work this summer will take place on the east side.

“The (highway bill) is a high priority,” Daines, a Republican, said. “I’m optimistic we’ll get something done.”

Daines met with Park superintendent Jeff Mow last week and went snowshoeing with students from the Kila School District on a field trip with Park rangers.

Mow said the end of federal budget sequestration was good news for the Park. The Park’s base funding this year is about $13.6 million — about $100,000 less than it was in 2012, but more than it was in 2013 during sequestration.

But he did express concern about the Park’s aging infrastructure — particularly its old hotels. The Lake McDonald Lodge, Sperry Chalet and Belton Chalet will turn 100 this year.

The Park expects to have regularly scheduled campground openings and closings this year. Last year, several campgrounds either opened weeks later than normal or closed weeks earlier because of sequestration.

Mow said some campgrounds might open later this spring and close later in the fall. Fall weather has been good in the past few years, particularly in September, while spring weather has been hit and miss.

Daines agreed that September was often the nicest month of the year in Montana and joked that spring months were “bipolar.”

He also said he was encouraged by legislation that would further protect the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead from energy development.

The North Fork Watershed Protection Act would ban any new energy leases on federal lands in both drainages. The bill recently passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee with a unanimous vote. Daines said he didn’t have to say a lot to the committee — he used photos that told the story better than words.

The Senate version of the bill has also made it out of committee. The next step would be a full vote by both houses, but it’s likely the page-long bill will be added as an amendment to another bill.