COEUR d'ALENE - As the freeze on federal payments to some state highway programs continued on Tuesday, the effects trickled down to Kootenai County.

The handful of federal employees working on the Fernan Lake Road project had to leave the site at noon Monday on a forced furlough that continued on Tuesday.

"What we have received from the Federal Highway (Administration) is a letter stating that all work was to shut down other than critical erosion work, which we're doing," said project manager Dusty Forsmann, with M.A. DeAtley Construction. "They approximated the shutdown to be two or three days. That's all I know."

The roughly four federal workers on furlough had been supervising the work of M.A. DeAtley, a Washington-based company contracted by the U.S. government to conduct erosion control around Fernan Lake and reconstruct a portion of the decrepit roadway.

Although DeAtley's crew of about 10 workers can fulfill its erosion work without the federal supervisors present, company Vice President Scott Palmer worried how long they will wait to continue the rest of the contract work, including excavation and overlay.

"Pretty soon we're going to run out of work and the project will be shut down completely," Palmer said.

Work on the project has continued off and on throughout the winter, depending on weather, including road construction, cleaning mud slides and solidifying the slope around the road.

"It's been going good," Forsmann said, adding that lately the crew has been working every day.

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ROADWORK

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So far, the crew has finished 80 percent of the reconstruction of five miles of road. They haven't started yet on the overlay for the following five miles.

Forsmann couldn't predict how much longer the crew would be working on erosion control.

John Pankratz, East Side Highway District supervisor, said the importance of the project, both for the environment and public safety, is huge.

"I don't think the federal government can back out now. They've got responsibilities out there regarding environmental issues and I think they will complete it," he said.

The Fernan Lake Road project is funded completely by the federal government, and has been slated for completion in 2011.

The project is among a package of federal government programs that expired on Sunday.

Legislation to extend those programs had been blocked by Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, who thought the $10 billion measure would add to the budget deficit.

A spokesman for Bunning announced he would permit a vote Tuesday evening on the measure, and the Senate approved it.

"I don't see this as being a major glitch at this point," Pankratz said. "I expect that the federal government will get this issue resolved in a hurry."