Idaho 55 highway project, increasingly over budget, is now behind schedule, too
The price of the Idaho 55 highway project near Smiths Ferry has risen and is now expected to approach or even exceed $60 million, just as the Idaho Transportation Department for the first time acknowledged construction is likely to bleed into the spring — beyond its pledge to finish by the end of this fall.
The updated total — up from a prior estimate of $45 million — was disclosed in a recent cost analysis produced by the state’s transportation agency for the governor’s office. The details of the road project’s financials came following reports from BoiseDev and the Idaho Statesman that it had at least doubled in price.
The cost of constructing the mile-long road-widening project in Valley County was estimated only three years ago at $18.9 million, before ITD awarded a contract to begin work for $25.7 million. With “construction support costs,” including outside consultants for engineering, technical review and public relations that ITD said were built into the project’s original budget, the projected total reached $30.8 million.
The bulk of the added costs in the expanded estimate, ITD said, is tied to a large-scale rock slide that occurred in November on one of the nine granite rock faces within the project site. It was one of at least six rock slides that crews would encounter dating to the start of construction in September 2020, a Statesman investigation found.
The midday slide in the fall on one of the northernmost hillsides dumped a mess of rock and debris onto the roadway almost a football field long, forcing closure of the key link between Boise and McCall for nearly three weeks. Repairs and cleanup from the slide, which ITD called “unforeseeable” because of variable mountain terrain, amounted to several thousand large flatbed truckloads of material.
It also came at a hefty price tag — $9 million, ITD’s cost analysis details. That unanticipated expense includes the recommendation from technical experts to flatten the hillside’s slope more, ongoing work that entails pulling twice as much earthen material from the hillside as when it spilled onto the roadway in November.
In addition, stabilizing the tricky slope for public safety will cost no less than $5 million more, but could reach as much as $15 million, ITD said. A firmer estimate is expected to be presented at ITD’s board meeting next month.
“The estimated cost of the pending erosion control work of at least $5 million (plus a possible contingency of up to $10 million) is solely attributable to the landslide,” John Tomlinson, an ITD spokesperson, told the Statesman in a statement.
If the cost of that work hits its estimated ceiling, the construction total on the one hillside will reach $24 million. In turn, the fall rock slide alone will have nearly doubled the cost of the overall project, which at its finish will offer a widened and straightened highway to improve road safety.
Cost at least up to double
In April 2021, a month after the Idaho 55 project’s first slide on a different rock face closed the highway for more than a week, ITD hired technical experts to review the roadway’s design and construction plans. They brought on Boise-based engineering firm McMillen Jacobs Associates, which already was working on the project in a more limited scope, at a cost of $1 million.
Fellow Idaho engineering firms Forsgren Associates and American Geotechnics developed the project’s original design for $1.8 million. That cost was separate and not included in the overarching Idaho 55 project budget, ITD officials said.
After its review, McMillen Jacobs’ recommendations included lowering the angle of each of the project’s nine rock faces to increase their stability. The changes totaled $6.8 million “to address unexpected field conditions,” Tomlinson said.
Excluding the original design fees, the project will end up at a cost of no less than $51.6 million, ITD said. If the extra $10 million in contingency funds are needed to complete work on the rock face that gave crews the most trouble, the cost will reach $61.6 million — well more than double the construction contract awarded to Washington-based firm M.A. DeAtley.
However, ITD contends that comparing the original construction contract of $25.7 million to the new total estimate of nearly $62 million is “not accurate.” Also, the extra $10 million set aside, if needed, comes from the bipartisan federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in November, ITD said.
“An important aspect of understanding the budget on this project is the unforeseeable large landslide that occurred in November 2021,” Tomlinson said in his statement. “These supplemental funds would not be needed if not for the landslide repair and permanent stabilization.”
The governor’s office did not respond to requests from the Statesman for comment on the ballooning cost of the Idaho 55 highway project, as detailed in ITD’s recent cost breakdown.
But earlier this month, Little sat for an interview with Idaho Public Television program Idaho Reports and shared concerns about considerable cost overruns in response to a question about the Idaho 55 project.
“I’m never excited when a project goes double over their budget,” Little said. “And that’s a unique piece of real estate, there’s no question about it, but we have to be better at bidding these projects. If things are going to cost double what they are, what’s going to fall off the (other) end?”
‘Contractor is motivated’
Last month, ITD reiterated to the Statesman that despite the unexpected challenges during construction, which raised questions about the safety of motorists, the Idaho 55 project remained on schedule to conclude this fall. M.A. DeAtley’s construction contract requires all work be finished by the middle of November, ITD officials said.
“Worst case, we’re talking about early November, late October of this year,” Alex Deduck, ITD’s project manager for the Idaho 55 highway widening, told the Statesman during a recent visit to the project site. “They need to be finished by Nov. 15 of this year.”
“And that’s right on schedule, from the original schedule,” added Vince Trimboli, an ITD spokesperson.
But ITD now says that won’t happen.
Instead, most of the work will be finished before the typical winter season pause of construction, Tomlinson said. That means the project is expected to stretch into next year.
“A majority of the construction will be completed this year, and the department has given DeAtley until late spring 2023 to complete any remaining finishing work,” he said. “The contractor is motivated to finish as much work as possible this fall.”
The governor’s office also did not respond to a question from the Statesman about the Idaho 55 project blowing past its contracted completion deadline.
“I used to ask every state agency, ‘Are we on time and are we under budget?’ “ Little said during his Idaho Reports interview earlier this month. “The (Idaho) Department of Transportation is run by an independent board … and they’re the ones who are ultimately responsible.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
