Relatively few cars each day use the bridge. Before The Observer's January report, the state planned to build the bridge this summer. When it was first reported, Hunt defended the project. He said he asked the former state highway administrator to consider building the bridge because he wanted to relay the concerns of neighbors who felt ignored by transportation bureaucrats. He said farmers would be sorely inconvenienced and residents might be endangered in an emergency.
Hunt owns a cattle farm about three miles from the reservoir.
I recommended it be done. . . . I didn't recommend how much it should cost,'' Hunt said in January. A few days later, after dozens of residents and top state Republican leaders publicly complained about the project, Hunt said he had reconsidered and would let Tolson re-evaluate the project. Agents are scrutinizing how the department spent federal safety money, whether political favoritism may have influenced projects, and potential conflicts of interest by Transportation Board members in some proposed bridge and highway building. I would hope this would not be an exceptional decision . . . because there are a lot of other boondoggles out there,'' Hall said.