City ‘very hopeful’ for North Boyer Road fall reopening

SANDPOINT — The city of Sandpoint Public Works and Utilities Director Holly Ellis said the city is hopeful for a fall reopening of North Boyer Road, which was closed last month due to a failing culvert.

Ellis said the city is waiting on two “critical path items,” acquiring the new pipe and a 404 permit, to fully begin reconstruction on the culvert. The repairs have closed a long stretch of North Boyer Road just after the fairgrounds since June 11. 

“We are very hopeful for September,” Ellis said. “But that’s not a concrete date at this time.”   

The first step, acquiring the new pipe, will be taken care of by the city, but that timeline remains dependent on the manufacturer. Ellis said that the city is about a week to a week and a half away from submitting the permits to the applicable state and federal agencies.  

“We are very dependent on the manufacturer for how long it will take them to get a pipe to us,” Ellis said. “They might need to ship the pipe from many miles away, that might take a while. They might need to manufacture the pipe; they might not have it on the shelf.” 

The 404 permitting process goes through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Idaho Department of Lands and Idaho Department of Water Resources. All of the agencies are aware that the permit application will be submitted soon, Ellis said. Once the application is submitted, the city expects this process to take about four to six weeks.  

“Once we have our pipe ordered and our permits in, we’ll have a much better timeline,” Ellis said.  

Ellis said that the city made $250,000 from its reserve funds available for the project. She said that the city will have a better idea of the project’s exact price once a contractor is brought on board next week. 

If the project runs over that limit, Sandpoint will search for funding from Bonner County or the state to help complete it, according to Ellis. 

At a City Council meeting June 25, the councilors in attendance unanimously approved a declaration of emergency for the culvert, which allows the city to expedite the process of repairs. 

The city was first made aware of potential issues with the culvert in early June by Bonner County officials. Early investigations indicated “no immediate signs of danger,” but it was discovered June 11 that the culvert’s condition was quickly deteriorating and action needed to be taken to protect the public and surrounding environment’s safety. 

Recently, the city found evidence of a leak in the culvert which could have led to a collapse and complete loss of the road, if use continued. Bonner County has seen the harm culvert failure can bring as recently as two years ago, when the culvert on Dufort Road collapsed.  

Ellis credits a quick one-day response from Bonner County and the Idaho Transportation Department in aiding the city to reroute traffic to U.S. 95 via Bronx Road and Schweitzer Cutoff Road. 

“North Boyer Road is absolutely critical access,” Ellis said. “It’s a huge priority for the city to replace this as quickly as we can.”