SANDPOINT — In its annual Highway Report, the Reason Foundation ranked Idaho as number seven in overall and cost-effective rankings.

"Even know many of us hear complaints often from our constituents about how horrible the roads are and things that are going wrong, nationally we're doing fairly well," said Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay, during a post-legislative transportation briefing for the Bonner County Area Transportation Team on Wednesday.

Some of the things Idaho ranked high, in comparison with other states, were rural arterial pavement conditions and urbanized area congestion, of which the latter Dixon said "doesn't mean much" in North Idaho. Two things the state is not doing well in is highway fatalities with a ranking of 36 out of 50, as well as rural interstate pavement, such as Highway 200, he said.

After running through a few statistics, Dixon gave an update on the surplus eliminator program, for which he said the projection is $48 million to distribute next year. That would be $29 million for the Idaho Transportation Department and $19 millon for the Local Highway Transportation Assistance council to distribute to local agencies, he said. The program sunsets in the state's next fiscal year, Dixon said, so there is discussion in the Legislature whether to continue the program.

"I don't want that sunset to end," Dixon said. "... This is an important component to me, and I think to a lot of other legislators, that we're ensuring that the extra monies that we got went right to the things that we said were the most necessary — our backlog of maintenance and the roads and bridges."

Dixon was followed by Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, gave a brief update from the Senate perspective. As far as the surplus eliminator, she said it has been "good," but lacks certainty.

"When you don't know what that amount is going to be, it is hard to plan, particularly as you are planning for growth," Keough said. "... While the surplus eliminator is a nice tool and has a place, in my view, it can't be the only tool."

Keough also touched on the potential impact on state funds with the proposed federal infrastructure plan in Washington, D.C.

"There are potentially some good things in there, but there is also some things that might be hurtful to rural states like Idaho," Keough said.

Eighty percent of the program funding would be discretionary, she said, which would require Idaho to be nationally competitive in an application process. There would also be a large increase in state match, which can be a challenge for rural states, Keough said.

As she is retiring from the Legislature this year, Keough closed by encouraging those in attendance to stay "vigilant and involved."

"Because that's how things get done, and being involved is critically important," she said.

Laila Kral introduced LHTAC, describing what it is, who they serve, and some of the programs, including the Local Strategic Initiatives Program, which, through an application process, provides the state’s surplus funds to eligible road and bridge projects. LHTAC awarded 17 projects this year, she said. While Dixon gave a projection of the surplus amount for next year, the actual amount will be revealed in July when the state reaches the end of its fiscal year. Information on LHTAC programs can be found online at lhtac.org.

David Sims, mayor of Bonners Ferry and District 1 member of the Public Transportation Advisory Council, was on hand to discuss public transportation. In Bonner and Boundary counties, the SPOT bus is the main source of public transportation. SPOT receives federal grant funds with a local match required, Sims said. Locally, SPOT is funded by the cities of Dover, Sandpoint, Ponderay, Kootenai and Bonners Ferry, as well as Boundary County, the Area Agency on Aging and private funds.

"Funding of public transportation is a big challenge," Sims said. "If you look at the numbers, we are really dependent on federal funds ... The Idaho PT staff is fairly confident of the funding levels we've been seeing — hopefully those will continue at a similar level."

Serena Carlson, owner and operator of Carlson Strategic Communications and rail representative for BCATT, spoke briefly about current rail issues, noting that there were two public hearings on Wednesday regarding the proposed Sandpoint Junction Connector.

The final speaker of the day was Damon Allen, District 1 engineer with ITD. Allen said transportation saw a revenue increase from the state of $105 million this year due to fuel tax and registration fees. The funds are split 60/40 between ITD and local agencies, Allen said. Through the additional funds received by ITD, Allen said 150 projects are in the works across the state.

ITD has several current and upcoming ITD projects in Bonner County. The $5.29 million bridge replacement is underway on Highway 41 in Oldtown. The bridge will be constructed in two stages over two years, and is currently in the process of traffic control and demolition.

The department entered into an MOU with the city of Sandpoint to install fiber optic connectivity for the traffic signals on Highway 2/Fifth Avenue at the intersections of Boyer, Church, Cedar and Larch.

"We are really close now to being able to connect to those signals and actually monitor and operate them from our office in Coeur d'Alene," Allen said.

From Coeur d'Alene, they would be able to control signal timing and adjust for events such as Lost in the '50s, he said.

Other projects include a $1.72 million overlay and guardrail replacement from Durfort to Gun Club Road on Highway 95 this summer, a $1.15 million replacement of Strong Creek Bridge in East Hope in 2020, reconstruction of the highway and shoulder at milepost 1.9 on Highway 57 in 2020, and construction of a four-lane divided highway and frontage road between milepost 452.5 to 454.1 on Highway 95 in 2020.

With clearance issues of the BNSF railroad overpass in Sandpoint on Highway 2 near the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce, a project to reconstruct 0.7 miles of the highway below the overpass is scheduled for 2023. Allen said the project goal is to correct the vertical overhead height restriction clearance of 14.5 feet to current standards.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.