Sun Road reconstruction estimate skyrockets by $130 million

The estimate to reconstruct the Going-to-the-Sun Road has gone up by $100 to $130 million, Glacier Park officials said Tuesday.

That increase brings the grand total estimate in the $240 million to $270 million range, which is based on a 6 percent inflation rate, and if the job were completed over an eight- to 10-year period and full funding were available.

The original 2003 estimate was $140 to $170 million.

The new estimate is inclusive of $82 million in funding that has already been secured by the Park.

Fifty million dollars was included in a highway transportation bill and another $32 million was allocated through the National Park Service road budget.

That still leaves Glacier about $158 million to $188 million short of finishing the job.

Glacier, in a joint press release with the Federal Highways Administration, blamed ballooning construction costs.

Since a 2004 Sun Road sequencing study was completed, the average cost of construction nationwide has increased by about 50 percent, according to Clara Conner, division engineer for Western Federal Lands Highway Division of the Administration.

But the Sun Highway has other inherently expensive aspects to it. Not only do crews have to pay attention to constructing a safe road, they also have to attend to historical details.

For example, the historic stone walls are dismantled and the rocks are marked, new rocks are formed if an old rock can't be salvaged and then the whole wall is put together again ?using a special mortar technique to make it appear old again.

The process, while beautiful, is labor intensive.

In addition, rising gas and oil prices have also increased construction costs.

With an increase in cost estimates, the Park has shifted its focus of the effort on the alpine section of the road, Park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt notes.

This summer the Park will focus on a section from Crystal Point to Haystack Creek, and then jump to another phase that runs from Haystack to Logan Pass.The plan right now is to then go on to a phase that works from Logan Pass to Siyeh Bend.

Originally, there were other phases in between those phases that were at lower elevations. For example, after the section from West Side Tunnel to Haystack was completed, the idea was to complete a section near Avalanche Creek.