08/27/2008

By GENE JOHNSON  / Associated Press

After five decades of planning, appeals and court fights, the Idaho Transportation Department can start building a highway to divert traffic away from downtown Sandpoint.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order Wednesday allowing construction to begin. The ruling came just two days after a hearing in which a lawyer for environmental and community activists asked the court to reinstate the activists' challenge of the $98 million project, claiming federal reviews were insufficient.

"We have believed all along that we've done a good job ... and the court has confirmed that," Transportation Department spokeswoman Barbara Babic said. "The contractor will be out there just as quickly as possible. We're moving."

Sandpoint, a resort town 90 miles northeast of Spokane, Wash., is nestled on the north shore of 37-mile-long Lake Pend Oreille, which is heavily used in summer months. The town is also busy in winter because of the Schweitzer Mountain Ski area.

U.S. 95 is northern Idaho's main north-south route, and it jogs through downtown Sandpoint in a series of 90-degree turns, causing traffic backups. The plan is to build a bridge across Sand Creek and a three-lane highway that will follow railroad tracks along the shore of the lake.

The North Idaho Community Action Network sued Idaho and federal highway officials in 2005, claiming they did not conduct proper environmental reviews concerning the planned 2.1-mile bypass. The group argued that officials failed to disclose or assess the impacts of dredging in Sand Creek, to consider alternatives such as a tunnel, or to consider the effect on a historical train depot at the original Sandpoint town site.

The new highway will blight the scenic shoreline, opponents said.

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in Boise rejected their claims last spring.

Wednesday's order lifted an injunction that had blocked construction pending the outcome of the appeal. The judges said they would issue a full decision explaining their reasoning "in due course."

Neither Liz Sedler, executive director of the community group, nor the group's attorney, Matthew Bishop of the Western Environmental Law Center, immediately returned calls seeking comment.

State engineers began discussing relocation of the highway in the 1950s but the project has been beset by litigation and concerns over its impact on the town's aesthetics.

"There will always be some opposition, but the majority of the residents in Bonner County have been very supportive, and it's time to move forward with this," Babic said.

Parsons RCI Inc., of Sumner, Wash., signed a contract to perform the highway work Wednesday afternoon, she said.