Park transitfacility planis unveiled

A new transit center near Apgar was the centerpiece of a presentation Wednesday in Kalispell from Glacier National Park officials on the upcoming Going-to-the-Sun rehabilitation project.

Although the park has been planning and discussing the transit center for the past couple of years, the vision has become more tangible with conceptual drawings and details that explain the park's main strategy for offsetting impacts from a prolonged construction project on Sun Road's alpine stretch.

Glacier Superintendent Mick Holm said that road construction work is slated to get under way in summer 2007, and when it does, the park's new transit system will be in place.

Holm reiterated his confidence that the park will have enough funding for the project, which comes with an overall price tag expected to range from $140 million to $170 million.

"It looks very good," Holm told about 30 people who gathered Wednesday afternoon for the Sun Road "stakeholders" meeting at the Outlaw Inn.

The six-year transportation bill recently passed by Congress included $50 million for the Sun Road project, and the park has about $13 million "in the bank" dedicated to it. The balance of the funding is expected to come from the National Park Service's Roads program in annual appropriations during the six- to eight-year term of the construction project.

"When I add up all the numbers, it looks to me like we'll have the money to complete this project, including the mitigation," Holm said.

Mitigating impacts of construction is focused on the park's new transit system - starting with the construction of transit centers at both ends of Sun Road, St. Mary and West Glacier.

The idea is to reduce the number of vehicles on Sun Road while the construction project is under way by encouraging visitors to ride new transit buses and giving them precise information about construction schedules and other opportunities in and around the park.

The transit centers are expected to be hubs for buses, cars and information.

The $5.8-million West Glacier transit center, slated to begin construction next fall, will include a transit building and 150 parking spaces on nearly six acres at the "T" intersection leading visitors either to Apgar Village or Sun Road.

Gary Danczyk, the park's mitigation project coordinator, said Glacier handles roughly 16,000 visitors a day during the peak summer months.

"It's not just about getting people out of their cars. It's about getting complete, good information to them," he said. "I think that's equally important in how we reduce congestion on the road."

John Kilpatrick, Glacier's facilities manager, explained that the transit centers will be fitted with kiosks providing real-time information about bus locations, their routes and their schedules, along with information on expected delays caused by construction.

The information will give visitors the ability to decide, for example, whether to take the bus in the morning, or to wait until afternoon to drive their own cars over Logan Pass. They will also have information about alternative places to visit.

The entire transit system is expected to be operated by a third-party company, under a service contract that will be awarded through a competitive bidding process. The operation and maintenance of the transit system will be paid for through a $5 increase in entrance fees that was announced by the park this week. The fee increases will take effect next year.

"The idea behind this is that it will be a sustainable transit system" costing roughly $720,000 annually, Danczyk said.

Park officials are planning on a transit system with two types of buses - a 30-foot coach that will carry passengers on primary routes, and a 23-foot "alpine" bus that can carry as many as 12 passengers through the narrow alpine stretch of Sun Road where construction will be concentrated.

Danczyk said that initially, the park's is planning on primary routes on Sun Road, along with some shorter "feeder" routes. But eventually, he said transit service could be expanded and even connected to outside public transit systems, such as Flathead County's Eagle Transit.

Transit center parking lot can also be expanded, as demand warrants.

The park's transit system is being treated as a pilot project, in the sense that it could be terminated at the end of the Sun Road reconstruction. But park officials see considerable potential for the system to become a permanent part of the park.

"We think that after eight years of doing this, the public expectation will be for us to have a transit system in the park for the future," Kilpatrick said.

The presentation was well received by those attending the meeting.

"We're really pleased with what we're seeing," said Linda Anderson, executive director of Glacier Country, an organization that promotes tourism in the greater Glacier area.

Anderson also sat on the Going-to-The-Sun Road Citizens Advisory Committee, a panel that provided considerable input to the Sun Road project nearly five years ago. Anderson said the project that's taking shape is consistent with the committee's recommendations.