" Looks like the Bypass is a go. Time to move into the 21st Century!!!! "

" The proposed highway would transform the "picturesque waterfront" of Sandpoint into an elevated, three-lane interstate,
What picturesque waterfront?...the one the Seasons Resort has taken away or the weed filled train line near the visitors center that looks more like a slew? Or, maybe the graffitti on the overpass is now considered a work of art? Sandpoint is no longer a beautiful place ..just another plastic and cement jungle of tourists and traffic.
A tunnel proposal is just to make sure the Seasons Resort property values don't deteriorate anymore than they have due to noise and the economy but...the highway proposal isn't without it's flaws either. Seems no one is looking out for Sandpoint anymore... "

" Concerned - if the issue is safety in regards to getting trucks out of downtown then ITD should be held responsible for compliance with environmental regulations. It is only when they comply with regulations will a byway be built. They continue to make the bad choices to try to end-run well understood regulations. As to the safety issue - I don't care for people to get run over in town either but ITDs own study showed the byway would have more fatalities (presumably due to high speed and potential for head ons vs a through town route - which had more injury accident). If you want a highway build, phone up ITD and insist they get their environmental compliance act together. "

" There will not be a bypass around Sandpoint until ITD makes a decision to embrace, rather then circumvent, federal environmental regulations. This is no way to run a $144 million project. I can't speak to this NEPA lawsuit, but I know that in context to the upcoming Section 404 lawsuit (yes, there is another and it is likely to get even more traction) that ITD appears to have made a deliberate decision to write the Alternative Analysis they submitted to the Corps in such a way that it guaranteed that the Sand Creek alignment would be selected. And why should we not be surprised? They had already spent $20 million on engineering a land costs, the likelihood of the selecting another alternative was about zero. The problem is that if this was a 'knowing' and 'willful' effort to circumvent the clean water act regulations and was not 'the product of an accident or mistake' then their actions could easily rise to be a criminal act (submittal of deliberately fraudulent documents in effort to circumvent regulations) and these responsible could be heavily finds and/or do time in the pen. This is a serious matter folks! While I can't be judge and jury, there are a great many indicators that, as a group, ITD made a management decision to purposefully bias the alternatives studies to rule out the other options (west, through town, tunnel, etc.). For me the most telling part is that I advocated for a option with a short tunnel 500-1100 ft (or even no tunnel at all) just when they were starting the alternatives analysis. I brought this the attention of ITD Director Pamela Lowe. They instead, choose to ignore this option and instead estimated a 3400 ft tunnel then ruled it out on price. Some of their comments in the Alternative Analysis are almost laughable that the Sandpoint connector route goes thru the courthouse when the alignment shows it no where near it. That the water treatment plant water main on 5th all but precludes a building tunnel because it can't be shut down when the truth is the plant only runs in the summer. It goes on and on, the lies these folks will tell. Make me think some of the do below in stripes. If you want to read some of the docs go here - http://www.sandpointtunnel.com/ltrs.htm (cut/paste to your browser). There history of telling whatever lies it takes to get an environmental permit is about to come to an end and with a heavy price to pay for it. "

" Simple Dad: Same old Same old....don't even bother to read it anymore. Already know what you're going to say. "

" I used to visited Sandpoint on a regular basis over the past 40 years. What used to be a relitivly pleasant drive and an enjoyable visit, Sandpoint has morhped into big city gridlock. The vile smell of stagnant automobile exhaust generated by vehicles struggling to pass through town is double disgusting when you consider that an alternative like the bypass is at hand.
The walking city needs to expose NICAN for the hypocrits that they are. If the enviroment is truely their concern, they would realize that this obstructionism is counter to that concern. Its time to clean up Sandpoint in more ways than one "

" I have been reading these arguments for and against the bypass for years now.
The folks who want a multi-Billion dollar bypass somewhere else, (Or a tunnel next to a lake, real good idea) and the gang that just wants the madness downtown too end.
For all concerned, good news follows.
I HAVE THE ANSWER!
Really, I do.
Here it is.
Simply burn Sandpoint to the ground, blade a straight highway through
the rubble and be done with it. Problem solved!
And the best part is we can blame the founding fathers of Sandpoint for putting the town in a foolish location.
And whats more we can give the land back to the Native Americans.
A little worse for wear to be sure, but the headaches will be over.
Anyone care to second the motion??? "

" I think we need to do something because the traffic is totally unacceptable. If the byway is to go forward then we need to get on with it. I personally don't like it but I can live with it. I would much rather keep the downtown and city beach area a peaceful place to linger. I have no doubt that will be lost forever if the byway goes forward.

The real tragedy in all this is the by-pass idea should have never gotten to this stage. Whether it was cost, influence or both, the politicions have given us the least desirable choice. The ideal solution would have been to bypass the city altogether by routing US 95 west of town and connecting to the cutoff road in Ponderay. That solution is so obvious its hard to believe that anything else was given consideration.

Still, we need to get something done. If its to be the bypass, so be it. If not, then maybe the polititions will have no choice but to give us the solution we needed all along. "

" The local business owners are blind to the reality that no one wants to go to their businesses with cattle trucks, big rigs and impatient locals jamming the streets. I for one stay away from 1st street as well as Cedar, and I know many others do the same. Build the bypass! "

" Hey Bull...well Bull S. Get you head out of your....and the same for simpleton Dad, go back to where you came from along with the ponytailed one, Harry Potter and the Tunnel of horror and Bride of the Cryptkeeper, aka, Liz Sedler. Are you kidding me with her? The Western Law Centers doesn't know or maybe doesn't care where they throw their bombs and for whom. "

" I'm not posting about the bypass. Really I'm not!!!!

Build the bypass!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

" "a nightmare in summer months, with a series of 90-degree turns crammed with logging trucks, RVs and pedestrians" Don't forget the Canadian Cattle Trucks! "

" Bottom line, if Sandpoint wants to remain a "Walking town", they need to get traffic reduced to a manageable level. I just went thru town this morning, and almost hit a women and two children in the crosswalk in front of Cold Water Creek. I was driving in the right most lane and there were 2 Tractor Trailers in the left lanes, which limited my view of the Crosswalk. Luckily, I noticed the 2 trucks coming to a stop and stopped as a precaution, as the woman and to kids stepped right into my lane. I know the SandPoint Police stated that 88% of the vehicles legally stopped during their Safety Awareness Program, when vehicles entered a 176 buffer zone. When I saw the trucks stopping, I was maybe 50 feet from the Crosswalk.

Sandpoint and the Idaho Department of Transportation have tremendous liabilities, since they know the Crosswalks are dangerous, but continue to allow uncontrolled pedestrian Crosswalk traffic.

I hope the woman and 2 kids, I almost hit, were not yours. Continuing to delay the bypass project is only prolonging the "When" not "if" possibility of a major tragedy. "

" Let's see, they claim that the bypass is part of a plan to increase traffic safety between Sagle and Ponderay, yet the design was done to national highway safety minimums and not recommendations. They just want to throw safety in there to pressure the judges, saying you can't keep an unsafe road, yet at the same time, they don't actually implement the recommended safety measures (which is the oh so complicated leaving of a few foot wide median so that should traffic patterns warrant it, a center divider can be put in place in the future. Instead, we have a plan that WON'T allow for a center divider ever, I guess at 50 million a mile you can throw in extras like a 3 foot median). ITD makes an overly complicated setup, and incorporates environmental statements for multiple projects together(I guess a 100 million project isn't big enought warrant it's own), yet then wants a pass on an incomplete impact review. ITD choose to lump it together, but couldn't see far enough ahead that they wouldn't be doing all of the projects at once? How many times will ITD get a pass? Not up to safety recommendations? Pass. Impact statement issues? Pass. Not to mention all of the passes they already received such as from the corps. Waiver, pass, pass. I swear, if I did this good at my job, I wouldn't get a pass but a fail. I guess it's good to do big government projects and have so many people willing to carry your water for you. I personally would like to see big government agencies held account to doing a good job, not wasting how many millions due to their poor implementation of this, but I guess I'm one of the few conservatives around these parts anymore. Everyone else seems to think big government should get a pass when they do poorly, and that something as economical as this at only 50 million a mile should be allowed to be so shoddy? Maybe if it was going to cost real money, like 500 million a mile they would want it done right? "

" Hopefully justice will be served and the environmental laws will be enforced. Perhaps it is time for ITD to go back to the drawing board and develop a plan that actually bypasses traffic around the town and not through it. "

" ..Looks like we might be getting a little national attention here..Think of what some of these readers from Seattle and other parts of the country would think if they were to spend some time walking our streets and contending with traffic..cattle trucks..poorly maintained streets..what would they think..is this the image we want to project to the rest of the world.."This is what Sandpoint is all about"..sad..very sad.. "

" Terry Hawkins hit the nail on the head. Come out from under Nican's skirt and show yourself, make your case "

" Environmentalists, go back to California!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

" "Group of environmental and community activists"???? Please!!! If that was true the Sandcreek Marina would have been shut down years ago. Try "Local business and land owners who don't want to lose money." If they want to make a case against the bypass fine, but don't hide behind a environmental front. Makes me sick. "