Funds authorized for interstate bridge ramp

An amendment to a Senate appropriations bill passed Wednesday authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to spend $2.2 million to build an approach ramp on the Idaho side of the new interstate bridge across the Snake River.

Sen. Steve Symms made the announcement of the approval. He said it took a bit of legislative maneuvering to persuade a Senate subcommittee on water resources to approve the funding. Congress is rushing to get away for a Christmas holiday.

Col. Henry J. Thayer, Walla Walla, the district engineer, said that he will immediately begin assembling money from fiscal 1982 and fiscal 1983 budgets to build the ramp. The $2.2 million is an extension of the $21 million authorized by Congress in 1976 to build the bridge. Without congressional approval, the corps could not go beyond that amount.

The latest estimate is that the bridge may be carrying traffic by June, C.E. Coppier, the project manager for the Guy F. Atkinson Co., said the contract time extends to September, but that it is possible that work might be done by June.

Thayer said work on the Lewiston approach will extend months beyond the opening date.

The first decision, Thayer said, will be getting the contractual situation straightened out. He said he does not know if the present contract can be extended or whether a new one is needed.

The approach, which will run north and south along Snake River Avenue, was not included in the original $21 million appropriation. By the time the city of Lewiston and Nez Perce County began pressing for its inclusion, the corps was running out of money and needed authority to spend more of its own funds.

The $2.2 million funding approval was secured through a subcommittee headed by Sen. James Abdnor, R-S.D., Symm said.

In a statement to the Senate before a vote approving the appropriation measure, Symms said inflation had pushed total costs above the original ceiling. He said the approach is needed to assure a smother flow of traffic on the Idaho side.

Without the ramp, Lewiston traffic bound for Clarkston would take a loop south of the bridge.

The approach ramp will take southbound traffic directly onto the structure.

This story was published in the Dec. 17, 1981, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.