The Idaho Transportation Department wants to cancel the McCall Alternate Route, the long sought-after Idaho 55 bypass around McCall that was first proposed in 1980.
An environmental study of the route has concluded the project would be too expensive, intrude on developed land and cost too much to protect bald eagles and endangered squirrels, an executive summary of the report said.
Public comments on the proposal are being taken until Monday, after which the proposal will be sent to the Federal Highway Administration, which would provide the majority of the funding for the project, said Greg Vitley, ITD senior environmental planner.
If the federal agency agrees with the ITD study, the project will be cancelled, Vitley said. The Idaho Transportation Board will not review the document since it does not affect an existing state highway route, Vitley said.
The planning for the McCall Alternate Route had progressed to the point that two routes were under discussion. One route would turn west from the current highway at Franklin Building
Supply, cross the North Fork of the Payette River and reconnect with the current Idaho 55 east of the Little Ski Hill.
A second route would follow the same path as the first route from Franklin Building Supply but veer west and reconnect with Idaho 55 west of the Little Ski Hill.
Neither of the routes would bypass the winding Goose Creek Grade west of the Brundage Mountain Resort turnoff. That section was broken off in 1992 into its own project, but was cancelled by the ITD board in 2004.
At that same 2004 meeting, the ITD board ordered its staff to finish the environmental studies for the McCall to Little Ski Hill section. The study took 10 years and cost $2 million.
The study concluded the cost of the project, estimated to be at least $95 million, was beyond the budget of the ITD. Those costs would include large amounts that would need to be spent to protect bald eagles and the endangered Northern Idaho ground squirrel along the route.
The report noted the McCall East-West Loop, now called West Deinhard Lane, was completed in 1995 and provided the additional river crossing that was one reason cited by proponents for the McCall Alternate Route.
There was no substantial public support for either of the two routes being considered, and the corridor designated for the route is being developed into subdivisions, including River Ranch on the east and Whitetail on the west, the study said.
Decision 'not surprising'
The proposed cancellation of the project was called disappointing but not surprising by McCall City Manager Lindley Kirkpatrick. The city has long championed the bypass to reroute heavy truck traffic around downtown McCall. "The handwriting was on the wall for this conclusion," Kirkpatrick said.
The environmental studies will be given to McCall and Valley County officials in case they wanted to preserve the corridor for a future road through zoning restrictions, Vitley said.
The study will be taken into account as McCall updates its comprehensive land-use plan, Deputy
City Manager Roger Millar said. "It is too early to say what will come out of this process," Millar said.
Valley County Commissioner Tom Kerr of McCall advocated preserving a corridor.
"I think it is going to be needed sometime in the future," said
