City, state mapping out traffic stoppers

By JOHN STANG

The Daily Inter Lake

Traffic can pile up at many Kalispell area intersections - slowing the flow of vehicles from Point A to Point B.

The city and state are in the early stages of mapping out a 10-year plan to address traffic congestion and dangers at many of these spots.

Sometime in November, the two governments plan to unveil where the most danger and congestion are located and provide preliminary options on how to deal with those problems.

The state hired the engineering firm Robert Peccia & Associates of Helena to work with the city on updating its 10-year area transportation plan - a blueprint on how to approach traffic matters through 2017.

In 1993 the city last updated this plan, which included this year's overhaul of Meridian Road.

So far, the city and state have collected raw data on traffic numbers, accidents, time information on vehicles getting delayed at intersections, speeds on local roads, how intersections are set up, bottlenecks and other factors, said Jeff Key, manager of Peccia's traffic and transportation division.

He spoke last Thursday at a public meeting attended by two nongovernment people.

Now, the state and city will sort out and study the raw information to identify the top traffic problems in and around Kalispell, then offer some preliminary choices for tackling those problems. Those preliminary observations will be presented at a November public meeting that has not been scheduled yet.

Throughout this process, the state and city are seeking public feedback on the area's worst traffic problems and on what should be done about them.

Engineers collected traffic information in July and August at 94 intersections in and around Kalispell. The rural study area extends north to Birch Grove Road, east to the Flathead River, west to Farm-To-Market Road and to slightly south of Rocky Cliff Drive.

Since construction kept traffic off of Meridian Road during the summer, its vehicle information will be collected this fall.

An unresolved issue is whether school-related traffic will skew differently from summer-related figures, Key said.

The engineers also expect to deal with bicycle and pedestrian path matters.

Right now, many Kalispell downtown intersections appear to have good traffic flows, the preliminary numbers indicated. But those figures also indicated that traffic flows are far too slow on Idaho Street, especially at the intersection with U.S. 93, as well as slightly north of that intersection on U.S. 93.

This planning effort does not address the U.S. 93 bypass project.

Public briefings and feedback sessions are tentatively set for November and March. The state and city hope to have a draft 10-year plan ready by April 2007 for public hearings before adopting a final plan, probably in May 2007.

For information and to provide feedback, people can go to www.rpa-hln.com/kalispelltrans06/index.htm on the Internet.