State starts study of North Fork Road

The Montana Department of Transportation has commissioned a “corridor study” to determine future improvements on the North Fork Road.

Past proposals to pave at least part of the road north of Blankenship Road have run into controversy.

Montana Department of Transportation Director Jim Lynch says the study is intended “to determine what common ground there is ... before you go in and do a big environmental document on something that nobody wants.”

Lynch said the Department of Transportation got involved at the request of Flathead County and others with an interest in the North Fork Road.

“We’re just assisting the county,” he said. “It’s a county road and a county project.”

The corridor study process has been used before in determining what to do with a road leading to Turner Mountain northwest of Libby, and in that case “it worked really well,” Lynch said.

The state has provided $125,000 to retain a consultant who is contacting North Fork residents, Glacier National Park, the Flathead National Forest and other “stakeholders” in the road’s future.

Many of those stakeholders attended a meeting in Columbia Falls last week to discuss the road’s future.

“The common theme for everybody ... is something needs to happen with the road, both the condition of it and the dust,” Lynch said. “There are those who want it paved and those who don’t want it paved. But the bottom line is something needs to be done with the roadway.”

The focus is on a 13-mile stretch of the road between Blankenship and Camas Road leading into Glacier National Park. The study will consider paving as well as alternatives such as an “all-weather gravel surface” designed to improve drainage and dust abatement, Lynch said.

Paving proponents contend that the road causes excessive dust and sediment pollution in the parallel North Fork River and the park. They say the unpaved road causes slow travel and excessive wear and tear on vehicles.

Paving opponents are concerned that it will fragment wildlife habitat and change the rustic nature of the remote North Fork.

Lynch stressed that the corridor study is not an environmental review that would make a final determination on the road. Rather, it will result in a report with a recommendation for the county, probably by this August, Lynch said.

Funding has always been an issue for any North Fork road project, and Lynch said the Department of Transportation can assist the county in that area as well.

“There’s lots of different funding sources,” he said, citing Forest Service and Federal Highways programs as examples.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com