U.S. 93 project to begin this fall

After years of working toward a highway design that can accommodate both pedestrians and heavy through traffic, the city of Whitefish is finally ready to put its U.S. 93/Second Street reconstruction project out to bid.

The city will take bids until 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 17 for the downtown streetscape project that originally was conceived in the Whitefish Downtown Master Plan.

A $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will pay for the street improvements on U.S. 93 from Spokane Avenue west to just east of Lupfer Avenue.

Fast-tracked design began in August 2010 so the federal money could be obligated by September this year, as stipulated in the grant.

"We kept close to the vision of the master plan," said Jeremy Keene of WGM Group, who served as project design engineer. "A lot of important decisions were made related to community involvement."

The Heart of Whitefish downtown group was very involved in the design phase, Keene said.

The project will reduce traffic congestion without expanding the width of the roadway, "striking a balance between highway needs and downtown needs," he said.

Improvements include reconstruction of the roadway and adjacent sidewalks; addition of left-turn lanes; reconstruction of underground utilities within the right-of-way; new highway signs and the installation of new traffic signals.

Other amenities include decorative street lights with hanging baskets, provisions for holiday decorations, street trees with metal grates, landscaped islands on all four corners of the Central Avenue intersection, continuous laydown curbs with concrete crosswalks, curb extensions, colored concrete buffer areas, benches, bike racks and trash receptacles.

Although the project originally proposed eliminating all on-street parking along the two-block section, some parking was preserved on both sides from the alley east of Central Avenue to the alley west of Central. One space was preserved in front of Wasabi.

Parking will be eliminated in front of City Hall, but a few spaces are being created around the corner on Baker Avenue, in front of the former police and fire departments.

"We were very aware of how important parking is and we tried to keep as much as we could," Keene said.

Construction is scheduled to begin Sept. 12 and will continue until winter freeze-up. It will be completed by June 30, 2012.

The project doesn't incorporate a proposed couplet alternative that would one day turn portions of Baker and Spokane avenues into one-way streets, but the design is compatible if and when the city chooses that alternative. The couplet likely will be needed but still is about 10 to 15 years away, Keene said.

Plans also are coming together for the first phase of the U.S. 93 Whitefish West project. Bids are scheduled to be let in the fall of 2012 for the first leg, from Lupfer to Karrow avenue. A second segment of reconstruction is planned from Karrow to Mountain View Drive, and a final phase from Mountain View Drive past Twin Bridges Road.

Right-of-way negotiations are under way for the first leg of the Whitefish West project and should be completed in about a year, Keene said. Money for Whitefish West will come through the usual avenues of state and federal highway funding.

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