U.S. 93 bypass construction

Residents can help set criteria

With $30 million available and a total construction cost estimated at $76 million, Montana Department of Transportation officials say the U.S. 93 bypass west of Kalispell will have to be built in phases.

Local residents can help decide how that phasing occurs during a meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. today at the Outlaw Inn.

The meeting will not address which segments of the bypass should be built first. However, people can help establish the standards that will be used to make that determination.

For example, four main goals were identified Tuesday by the Technical Advisory Committee, which provides oversight for construction projects in the Kalispell area.

The committee decided that the various phasing options should be evaluated based on whether they improve safety, whether they maintain and enhance current and future traffic flows, and on their "constructability" and cost impacts.

The idea is that segments of the bypass that fulfill these objectives to a greater degree would be built before segments that fulfill them to a lesser degree. As federal appropriations in addition to the $30 million become available, segments lower on the priority list would be completed.

The Technical Advisory Committee also proposed several criteria to help determine whether a goal is met and how well it is met.

For example, if a particular segment relieves traffic congestion in an existing crash area, it would rate a higher safety score than a segment that didn't. Similarly, if one phase is more likely to reduce truck traffic in downtown Kalispell - the original intent of the bypass - then it would get a higher traffic-flow score than another. Other criteria could count as negatives.

Tonight's meeting is the public's opportunity to say whether the committee got it right and whether other standards should be added.

When the goals and criteria are finalized, Stelling Engineers - the company hired to produce the bypass design - will use them to score and prioritize phasing options.

Stelling will come up with these phasing options on its own. However, it ultimately will present them and the proposed priorities to the Technical Advisory Committee and the public for approval later this summer.

The specific goals and criteria that were identified Tuesday include:

-Improving safety - Will a proposed phase relieve traffic from an existing crash area? Will it relieve traffic from severe crash area? Will it improve emergency vehicle access or decrease emergency response times (which would be a negative)? Does it improve existing bike path connections?

-Maintaining/enhancing traffic flows - Does a proposed phase go anywhere; does it provide desirable connections at each end? Will it reduce existing traffic congestion, and will it reduce future traffic congestion from developments that have been approved (e.g., the Old School Station industrial park or the three retail complexes near U.S. 93 and West Reserve)? Will it remove truck traffic from Kalispell's downtown core?

-Constructability - Will a particular phasing proposal cause substantial disruption to a neighborhood or commercial area? For example, would building a longer two-lane segment today and then coming back in several years to add another two lanes cause more of a disruption than building a shorter four-lane segment now? Are there any technical issues that would make one segment easier or harder to build?

-Cost impact - Would a proposed phase increase or decrease the total project cost? Could it be built faster than another segment, due to right of way, utility relocation or other issues?