Panel picks Whitefish Stage for upgrade list

Whitefish Stage Road is the interim selection for Kalispell’s next Urban Aid Highway project.

Members of the Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee made the selection Wednesday from 13 possible projects.

Construction costs to update Whitefish Stage Road south of West Reserve Drive are pegged at $5.2 million, according to a long-range transportation plan.

That figure does not include right-of-way acquisition.

The city gets $600,055 each year from the Montana Urban Highway Program. It could be eight to 10 years until enough money is accumulated on the city’s behalf to begin the project, City Planner Tom Jentz said.

The Montana Department of Transportation currently gets $10.8 million in federal money each year for the program, which it disburses among the state’s urban areas. Kalispell is one of 15 urban areas in the state.

The Montana Department of Transportation defines an urban area as consisting of greater than 5,000 people.

Jentz’s suggested criteria for the interim selection were that:

1) It benefit the overall transportation system.

2) It greatly increase safety and relieve congestion.

3) Potential housing or business construction would make the traffic situation worse.

4) The project has no significant impediments.

5) It’s financially achievable within a specific time frame, say 10 to 15 years.

The committee selected four additional projects to be on a second tier in case the committee decides to change its No. 1 selection in the future.

The other projects and their projected construction cost, not including right-of-way acquisition, are:

n The one mile of Three Mile Drive that is located in the city, $1.8 million.

n East Reserve Drive/Helena Flats Road, $5.3 million.

n LaSalle Road extension from U.S. 2 to Conrad Drive, $1.5 million.

n One mile of Willow Glen Drive, price unknown.

Jentz said the first two Urban Aid Highway projects for Kalispell were Main Street and North Meridian. The cost of the North Meridian project was $14 million, including right-of-way acquisition, Jentz said.

Whitefish Stage Road could be supplanted by one of the other projects depending on growth.