Jim has written on The Prairie Blog about the proposed new bridge over the Little Missouri State Scenic River north of Medora that is being shoved down our throats by a megalomaniac county commissioner who wants to spend up to $20 million of our gas tax dollars on a “Bridge to Nowhere.”
At the insistence of the Federal Highway Administration, the county is deep into an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process—in fact nearing the end stages of that process—and will soon be asking for federal funds to build its bridge. One of the final steps in the process is a public comment period, which is open now and runs through September 4. If you go to this website, you will find the details and a link to another website which contains the actual Draft EIS, for your reading pleasure.
If you have any feelings about running a lot of traffic through the valley of the Little Missouri State Scenic River, or wasting millions of taxpayer dollars, you should send in comments on the project. Below is the letter Jim and I have sent, expressing our feelings. This letter and Jim's earlier blog should give you plenty of information about the project, so you don’t have to read the entire 178-page document. (Although if you really want to spend a summer afternoon reading, here’s the link to the Draft EIS.)
Even easier, if you agree with what we have written, feel free to just copy and paste a link to this blog into an e-mail addressed to LMRC@kljeng.com and tell Ms. Turnbow you agree with the letter in the blog, and your comments will be duly noted.
Jen Turnbow, Project Manager
KLJ
P.O. Box 1157
Bismarck, ND 58502-1157
August
17, 2018
Dear Ms. Turnbow:
Please accept these comments
on the Draft EIS for the Little Missouri River Crossing in Billings County,
North Dakota. We are writing to recommend Alternative L, the no-build option.
If built, this bridge would be
the most colossal waste of taxpayer dollars in memory. If it is built with
federal or state matching funds, approved by the North Dakota Department of
Transportation, it will be a huge embarrassment for both the North Dakota DOT
and the Federal Highway Administration, because it is truly a “bridge to
nowhere.”
North Dakota has substantial
infrastructure needs, as witnessed by several state legislators recently, and
the proposed $11.2 million, and likely as much as $20 million, could be much
better spent correcting existing problems rather than building a new bridge
unlikely to be used by many except possibly the oil industry.
In spite of all being said by
the county and KLJ, it appears the only real beneficiary of this bridge would
be the oil industry. Federal and state tax dollars should not be spent to
accommodate a single industry, especially at the expense of real and
substantial damage to the historic, recreational and scenic properties of the
states only designated State Scenic River.
If the bridge is built with
Billings County taxpayer dollars, as the Commission has indicated it might do
if federal or state dollars are not available, it should be subject to a
referendum by Billings County voters before it is approved.
Almost no one wants this
bridge. It has simply become a cause celebre for Billings County Commission
Chairman Jim Arthaud, who has already
spent several million dollars in Billings County tax dollars pursuing it, and,
despite the fact it is not in his preferred location, has gone too far down the
road for him to consider abandoning it without losing face. It is simply now a
monument to his persistence, a monument on which he would like his name
inscribed.
Almost no one will use this
bridge, according to testimony at the public hearings, unless KLJ, the
project’s engineers, are misleading us with this statement:
“Traffic volume increase of
3.5 per cent for roads associated with the alternative and adjacent roadways.
Not expected to generate new traffic; however the redistribution of local trips
attracted to the new bridge is anticipated to increase the typical 2.5 per cent
traffic growth rates by 1 per cent for roads associated with the alternative
and adjacent roadways.”
If that statement is true,
there is no need for the bridge. If that statement is misleading (which is not
only possible, but likely), and the volume of heavy truck traffic increases
dramatically, it will destroy the sanctity and peacefulness of the state’s only
designated State Scenic River, likely in violation of Chapter 61-29 of the
North Dakota Century Code, the Little Missouri State Scenic River Act, enacted
by the North Dakota Legislature “to preserve the Little Missouri River as
nearly as possible in its present state . . . (and) maintain the scenic,
historic, and recreational qualities of the Little Missouri River and its
tributary streams.” The North Dakota DOT, as a lead agency for this project,
should not approve a project which would violate the law.
Today there are ZERO trucks
driving through the river valley and across the Little Missouri State Scenic
River between Medora and the Long-X Bridge. That is what the residents of the
river valley, although there are few, want the case to be. According to
testimony at the public hearings, there are fewer than ten families living
alongside the river who could possibly benefit from this bridge. But they live
in fear of the noise, danger, and massive dust clouds which could be generated
by heavy truck traffic through the river valley and on their farm-to-market
roads.
The County Commission has
leaned heavily on the need for the bridge to accommodate emergency vehicles.
That argument doesn’t wash. Almost all of the county’s emergency vehicles are
located in Medora, less than a mile from the bridge across the Little Missouri
River there, and can go either way—east or west—to respond to an emergency.
For all of these reasons and
others, the county should quit wasting taxpayer dollars and select Alternative
L, the no-build alternative, and the North Dakota DOT and the Federal Highway
Administration should reject the use of state and/or federal funds for this
project.
Respectfully,
Lillian Crook & Jim Fuglie
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