Bypass right-of-way process picks up speed

A federal carrot of $16 million in stimulus money, with its use-it-or-lose-it caveat, means Kalispell's long-sought U.S. 93 bypass finally could become a reality.

In the past three months the pace of right-of-way acquisitions for the south half of the bypass has stepped up considerably. The property acquisitions would give the Montana Department of Transportation the land it needs to build a west-side bypass, with cost projections between $34 million and $38 million for the south stretch.

"We've done well," Director Jim Lynch said of the Transportation Department's talks with landowners this spring.

More than 130 property owners are affected by plans for the south end, but negotiations and simple notifications had resulted in closed deals with half of them by this spring.

Today Department of Transportation officials are closing in on nine make-or-break properties among the 28 that are pending.

"One of those nine, if we need to, we think we can eliminate for the two-lane section. So one of those is not going to hold us up, so technically there's eight," Lynch said Thursday.

"We're not all done yet. But we've got eight out of there and, out of those eight we don't see any real issues at this point."

Even so, he's being cautious. "It's not done until they're signed so I don't want to get too over confident," he added.

"But I'm definitely encouraged by the progress we're making in the right-of-way department up in Kalispell. The job they're doing is absolutely fantastic and the cooperation they're getting with landowners has been excellent."

Once land deals are closed, plans can proceed for building the first two lanes between U.S. 93 at Gardner Auction and U.S. 2 near the Rodeway Inn.

In part, Lynch's measured confidence can be attributed to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"We would not have this progress without recovery dollars," he said. Stimulus funding freed up other project dollars for acquisition and brought in cash for road building that creates jobs.

Initially, the department needed to strike purchase agreements with owners of 88 different parcels the proposed southern route will cross, plus give courtesy notices to another 44 landowners bordering or affected by the project.

Some 26 right-of-way agreements were settled early on, but the other 62 still were in some stage of appraisal, acquisition or pending-agreement this spring.

Then, when the federal stimulus funding came along and the department found it had $16 million riding on it, Lynch and his crew lit a burner under the process.

In late March they scheduled a meeting with those 62 property owners.

"We said we have a project here and we need to get cooperation between all of us. We said by the end of June we've got to decide. If we don't obligate, then we lose the money," Lynch said.

A briefing a month later turned up good news.

"That is not going to happen. We will not lose the money," he added.

His confidence comes in part from the cooperation of those final property owners and his department's commitment to keep working with them.

Final negotiating points hang primarily on how much of the property the owner can continue to use until all four lanes are built, and when that will happen. Price is less of an issue, he said, with appraisals coming close to agreement.

The deadline to obligate 100 percent of the funding isn't until February 2010, but "we had to know if we even have a project long before, and I've got that indication," he said. "We had to obligate 50 percent of the dollars by the end of June, and we beat that by a month."

If the final landowners cannot be convinced the south half of the bypass is a worthy enough project to give over their land, "I can move in a number of other projects in a short time if I have to. But I think we have enough progress on this one that we can move forward with it," he said. "It's an important project and as long as we're progressing with it, we will keep working on it. If not, we'll work on acquisitions to the north."

He said his office already has bought a considerable chunk of right-of-way on the north end.

"As we get additional funding, we will take it from U.S. 2 to the north," he said. If they hit a stumbling block, "we'll go with independent utility" - meaning they'll build a road or other piece of the project that will be useful to the public even if the bypass tanks.

The bypass route begins when it diverges from the main U.S. 93 near Gardner Auction north of Snowline Lane in south Kalispell. It swings out to the west, crosses Airport Road, has an interchange with Foy's Lake Road, then connects with U.S. 2 near the Rodeway Inn on Appleway Drive.

From there, the north half eventually will kick in when funding becomes available. Plans are for an underpass at U.S. 2 and overpasses at Two Mile Drive and Three Mile Drive, with the bypass following the eastern edge of Empire Estates Subdivision and Stillwater Road, curving east after Four Mile Drive and sweeping south of Glacier High School to an at-grade signalized intersection with West Reserve Drive.

The entire length of the bypass will be built first as a two-lane road, with plans to go back and build the other two lanes later. Total cost estimate to date is $90 million.

Local civic leaders are pleased with the recent progress on the bypass.

Mayor Pam Kennedy is among those who have been working for the bypass since the early 1990s when an environmental assessment determined a route west of Kalispell would be best.

"The whole issue started with trying to maintain the viability of downtown," Kennedy said. "To do that it is important to remove truck traffic from downtown," making it more pedestrian friendly.

"So we started working with MDT to see what was available, then we started working with Senator Baucus who got the money for the initial assessment," she said, adding that the rest of the Congressional delegation has been in on the process along the way. "From that point he was able to secure dollars for design and acquisition of right of way, and now we're at the point where we have construction dollars."

When those construction dollars go into play their impact will be felt widely, Kalispell Chamber of Commerce President Joe Unterreiner said.

"Completing that would be a major addition to our local highway system," he said. "It helps local travel, commercial and truck travel, makes it easier for conventions and visitors to the area to move around the valley.

"Besides that, we have all the construction jobs that creates, to do $35 million of construction work. For here, it would be great just from the construction standpoint. We won't have economic recovery in the Flathead until we have job recovery."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com