Byway marks one-year anniversary

Decades of rancorous debate over the costliest highway realignment project in state history have faded into the background for Idaho Transportation Department Resident Engineer Ken Sorensen.

Sorensen was riding across the Sand Creek Byway with his wife when it occurred to him.

“I was kind of daydreaming, looking out between (Highway) 200 and the Cedar Street Bridge and I made the comment, ‘You know, sometimes I drive through here and it’s like ... it’s always been here.’ It’s done and I don’t really think about the heartache and some of the bad days that we had,” said Sorensen.

There was no shortage of bad days long before construction of the $106 million project began in 2008. The U.S. Highway 95 realignment proposal divided the community for years, with some contending it would finally ease gridlock in Sandpoint and others arguing that it would bring economic doom to the city.

Some also predicted a monolithic highway structure would irreparably harm the waterfront in Sandpoint and cause environmental ruin. Construction alone was forecasted to cast a pall over the city.

“Four years is a long time to be affecting a community even of our size,” Sorensen admits.

Given the immensity and complexity of the project, Sorensen said he could not help but expect a multitude of claims filed lead contractor Parsons RCI and legions of subcontractors for extra work that had to be done that was not anticipated.

But that didn’t happen.

“You look four years down the road and we have no claims on the largest single contract the state has ever let for roadway construction. That in itself is incredible,” Sorensen said. “If you would have asked me what I thought going into this job, I would have said, ‘If we got out the other end with anywhere from $2 million to $5 million in claims we’d be lucky.’”

There were disagreements, to be sure. However, ITD and Parsons worked with each other with fluidity, not rigidity.

“The door was never shut, so to speak, so there wasn’t a door to try and get open and try to resolve things. We didn’t get along on everything. We called each other all sorts of things every once in a while,” said Sorensen.

If ITD and Parsons reached an impasse, they would simply agree to disagree and table the matter for resolution at another time.

Sorensen credits a dispute-resolution panel of experts from transportation departments in Oregon and Washington state and a massive contractors with the relatively smooth sailing.

The project was also subject to some form of regulatory window on just about every day of the contract, including a consent decree that forbid ITD from conducting earth-disturbing activities in the off-season.

But ITD learned on jobs near the Canadian border that frequently looping in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Idaho Department of Lands, Idaho Fish & Game and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service made life easier.

Officials from those agencies were invited to tour the project every month.

“That was probably one of the biggest reasons we were able to do some of the things that we needed to do outside the window of that consent decree,” Sorensen said.

The public, meanwhile, has taken an ownership over the project he doesn’t often see. People care about the byway and its attendant infrastructure, such as pathways and landscaping.

“For the people that wanted the byway, they got what they expected. I think those naysayers were surprised by what they got,” said Sorensen. “I’ve had several people tell me, if that’s what filling Sand Creek is, please fill the other half.’”

•••

• Contract length — 935 working days

• Material exported — 834,000 cubic yards

• Material imported — 800,000 metric tons

• Storm drains — Nearly 5 miles

• Drainage ponds — 7, including a wetland mitigation area

• Wick drains — 245 miles

• Number of walls — More than 30, totaling more than 375,000 square feet

• Bridge girders — More than 70

• Bridge pilings — 8.2 miles

• Concrete — 17,000 cubic yards

• Rebar — More than 1.7 million pounds

—SOURCE: Parsons RCI