State eyes $1.5 billion in stimulus funds for Swamp Creek
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
September 3, 2009
A $1.5 billion federal stimulus program for transportation projects could be the last best chance for reconstruction of Highway 2 at Swamp Creek within the next several years.
Montana Department of Transportation director Jim Lynch confirmed that the state is applying for funding for several projects, including Swamp Creek, under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant program. No state can receive more than $300 million under the TIGER program, and individual projects must be budgeted at $20 million or more.
"There’s lots of criteria," Lynch said. "We’re going to submit as many projects as we can."
Grant applications are due by Sept. 15, with awards to be announced as soon as possible after the deadline but no later than Feb. 17, 2010.
Lincoln County Commissioner Tony Berget has made Swamp Creek his pet cause, and has been promoting the project to anyone who will listen in the state or federal government. This summer, he’s orchestrated a campaign in which constituents have sent hundreds of postcards to Lynch, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus and U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg. After finding out about the TIGER program, Berget said he tried to offer assistance in the application process.
"I’ve called Jim Lynch – he has not called me back to date – to ask how can we assist, what can we do to help."
Berget said he’s also been calling the offices of Montana’s congressional delegation to promote funding for Swamp Creek.
"I’m just hoping that they will look at it," he said. "I’d like to partner with it to get it done.
I just don’t want to see it put off and put off."
Plans to rebuild the section of highway at Swamp Creek have been in the works since at least the mid-1980s but have been complicated by the difficulty of engineering a roadway on marshy ground butting up against rocky hillsides. Originally designed as a single project between mile markers 45 and 57, the proposal was later broken into three sections, one of which was rebuilt in 2007 with the help of $6 million in special funding procured by Baucus. The remaining eight miles aren’t on the state Department of Transportation’s construction schedule until sometime after 2013.
According to Berget, the project has been put "on the back burner" while Highway 93 has been given priority for construction funding.
"I just feel like we wait and we wait and nothing gets done," he said.
A federal earmark funded a design for the project several years ago, Lynch said, but the design turned out to be unworkable. Swamp Creek went back to the drawing board, and the new design is not yet finished, he said.
The project was previously estimated at around $60 million. It’s not clear how much the new design will cost to build, Lynch said.
"It’s going to be expensive, no matter what," he said.
Lynch said his department bases its construction program on three criteria: safety, traffic congestion and the surface condition of the road. Potential projects are evaluated annually on those criteria.
"It isn’t a political process," he said.
Unfortunately, Lynch said, annual needs are typically estimated at around $1 billion while the department normally gets around $500 million to work with.
"We’re behind the eight ball from the get-go," he said.
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Editor’s Note: See the September 1, 2009 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Tuesdays, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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