BAUCUS' BEARTOOTH PLOWING FIX ADVANCES
Senator's Measure Would Ensure Mem Day Opening For 4 Years
June 6, 2007
(Washington, D.C.) – A key senate panel today passed Montana Senator Max Baucus’ provision to make sure the Beartooth Highway opens by Memorial Day weekend for the next four years and enable officials to make critical repairs to the scenic highway.
Baucus’ “Beartooth fix” -- passed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today -- would enable the Montana Department of Transportation to reroute $12 million from a $19-million earmark Baucus secured for the road in 1998. Baucus is a senior member of the panel.
Baucus’ plan would set aside $1.6 million in federal highway dollars to pay for plowing over the next four years, while a permanent solution can be found to maintaining the scenic route between Red Lodge and Cooke City.
The remaining $10.4 million would be used to make critical repairs to the road from the small town of Top of the World to the Montana state line.
At issue is a 43-mile stretch of the road that has been referred to as an “orphan” because no state or federal agency is legally bound to plow or maintain it. A 1997 funding agreement expired last year, leaving officials seeking short and long-term solutions. Under Baucus’ fix, Montana will use its highway dollars to plow and repair the road for the next four years.
The road opened on time this year after weather conditions improved and after Baucus leaned on the National Park Service to plow it using funds from its budget.
“Montana is stepping up to the plate in a big way to help make sure the Beartooth Highway opens on time,” Baucus said. “We will keep looking for a permanent solution, but for now this is a significant victory for Montana’s tourism industry around Yellowstone National Park.”
Baucus chairs the Senate’s highways subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee and he’s also chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal highway funding. He’s secured more than $40 million for the road since 1998.
Here’s how Baucus’ solution would use $12 million from his 1998 highway bill earmark:
- Plowing: About $1.6 million would be set aside for use by YNP for snow plowing and maintenance activities and to ensure the highway is open by Memorial Day of each year. This will provide $400,00 per year for four for years.
- Top of the World resurfacing: About $8 million would be used for restoring the pavement above the Top of the World store to the Montana line and in other select locations on the corridor. This will provide a drivable surface on the highway well into the future.
- Top of the World bridge replacement: About $2.4 million would be used to replace two bridges near the Top Of the World store that are currently functionally obsolete.
“The Beartooth Highway is a major tourist route in the summer, and a crucial link between Red Lodge, Cooke City, Yellowstone National Park, and recreational sites in between,” Baucus said of the road, which was built in 1936 and designated a National Scenic Byway in 1989. “That’s why we’ll keep fighting to make sure the road is repaired and opens on time.”
When mudslides severely damaged portions of the highway in Montana in May 2005, Baucus secured $22 million to get the road repaired and reopened. And in 1998, Baucus secured $19 million for the road as part the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century, or TEA-21.
Baucus acted on the recommendation of the Beartooth Steering Committee, which is co-chaired by representatives from Montana and Wyoming and includes representatives from Yellowstone National Park, the City of Red Lodge, the city of Cody, Wyo., Carbon County, Park County, Yellowstone County, Park County, Wyo., the Federal Highways Administration, the Forest Service, and Friends of the Beartooth.
Baucus’ provision was included in a so-called technical corrections bill today. Now that it has passed the Senate EPW Committee, the bill will be considered by the full Senate.
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