State wants Baker Avenue for truck route

A plan to rebuild U.S. 93 through downtown Whitefish and convert Baker Avenue into a truck route is down to the wire, with a final public meeting set next week.

The state Department of Transportation will present major findings and recommendations in the Whitefish Urban Corridor Study from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Monday, April 26, at Whitefish City Hall.

There will be an opportunity to comment on and discuss the project.

The downtown highway revamp has been in the works since the late 1980s when both the state and federal government first considered improving U.S. 93 through Whitefish. An environmental impact study was completed in 1995 and design work began five years ago.

The final corridor study details two preferred options for the rebuild, both of which convert a portion of Baker Avenue into a truck route. A new bridge across the Whitefish River at Seventh Street also is still on the table.

The state’s preferred option includes construction of a bridge at Seventh Street and would divert truck traffic off U.S. 93 onto Baker Avenue at Seventh Street. The bridge has been a controversial idea because it would be placed at one of the widest spots in the river. Some in the community worry about environmental impacts to the river and associated riparian habitat.

Because a new bridge would push the cost of the preferred option past $20 million, the state’s backup plan is an $11 million alternative that diverts trucks to Baker Avenue via 13th Street at the Safeway grocery store.

Both configurations provide a three-lane street on Baker, with two southbound driving lanes and one northbound lane between Second and Seventh streets. The cheaper alternative continues the three-lane configuration south of Seventh Street to 13th Street and also includes a widening of the existing bridge over the Whitefish River at Riverside Park.

Both options also call for two lanes of northbound traffic on Spokane Avenue, with one southbound lane.

Two-lane traffic would be preserved on Second Street in the downtown area between Baker and Spokane, and some on-street parking would be retained.

The overriding goal of the highway rebuild has been finding a way to lessen the heavy traffic load particularly on Second Street through the downtown corridor. Both Second Street, west of Baker Avenue, and Spokane Avenue, north of Riverside Avenue, are approaching or exceeding their capacity volumes.

Second Street’s intersections with Spokane and Baker also can’t accommodate the full range of truck movements, so those intersections will have to be reworked to better handle trucks.

However, a 2006 court ruling prohibits the state from acquiring property from American Bank through condemnation. The bank was built without a setback on the northwest corner of  Baker and Second streets, so any future improvements will have to be completed without additional right of way from the bank, according to the corridor study.

 The study is available online at www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/whitefish/documents.shtml or in hard-copy format at the Whitefish Library and Whitefish Public Works Department.

More information on the corridor study also can be found at www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/whitefish/ or by contacting Dan Norderud of Robert Peccia & Associates at (800) 667-8160.

Comments may be submitted in writing at the meeting, by mail to Sheila Ludlow, MDT, P.O. Box 201001, Helena, MT 59620-1001 or Dan Norderud, Robert Peccia & Associates, P.O. Box 5653, Helena, MT 59604 or online at www.mdt.mt.gov/mdt/comment_form.shtml

Comments are due by May 14.

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com