SANDPOINT — Members of Idaho Transportation Board ripped the U.S. Highway 95 bypass when they approved the $98.4 million bid for the project last month.

“The amount of money we’ve got into this stretch of road is … awful,” said Bruce Sweeney, a transportation board member representing District 2. “We should not ever be spending this much money on a short piece of road like this.”

Sweeney made the remarks when the board took up Parsons RCI’s bid during its meeting on June 19 in Boise.

“I’m going to probably hold my nose and vote for this only as a favor — not because I think it’s the right thing to do — because I think it isn’t the right thing to do. We should have stopped this long ago,” said Sweeney, who was also critical of the project’s poor connection with U.S. 2.

Board members were not quoted directly in draft minutes from the meeting, although their comments were contained on an audio recording recently obtained by The Daily Bee.

Consideration of the bid began with District 1 Engineer Damon Allen explaining that the Sand Creek Byway bid was 17 percent higher than expected because of a sharp increase in the cost of steel and a plan that involves limiting the amount of construction traffic through downtown.

Allen said the steel cost was $8 million higher than anticipated and added that contractors were having trouble even securing quotes for the material.

“A big ticket item was the recent steel increases. We had a couple dozen steel items through the contract that reflected the steel inflation over the last couple of months,” he said.

Allen presented the board with two options to address the overage — put off four pavement projects in District 1 or scrounge around for money from other districts.

Board members were displeased with the latter option.

“It’s absolutely horrendous to come to the other districts and ask for a shortfall that you’ve got when you’ve had so much money up there already,” said one board member.

It was noted that District 1 has secured 24 percent of the state’s funding for the last four years, while other districts were getting only 12 to 15 percent.

The board ultimately approved the bid on 5-1 vote, with District 5 board member Neil Miller casting the opposition vote. The board’s approval forced the postponement of a pavement improvement project on U.S. 95 between Ponderay and Samuels, which was planned for 2011.

The three other pavement projects involved Interstate 90 and state Highway 3 in Benewah County.

After the motion to approve the bid passed, a board member accused people here of holding the Idaho Transportation Department hostage in order to secure improvements to the project, such as a southbound off-ramp.

“We need to be very, very careful we don’t get ourselves entrapped in a mess like this again,” he said. “They want the road but want everything else with it and I really have a problem with that.”

Aside from Allen, District 1 board member Jim Coleman was the only one to defend the project at the board meeting. Coleman acknowledged the high cost, but said the bypass is a complex project with scores of mitigation measures.

“It appears we’ll end up with a very nice facility that will eliminate a real problem in Sandpoint,” Coleman said, referring to the commercial truck traffic coming through town.

Not all the board members identified themselves while speaking. Efforts to confirm who said what were not successful on Tuesday because ITD staff and the board was en route to Sandpoint.