Two road contracts awarded

By TOM LOTSHAWThe Daily Inter Lake

The Montana Department of Transportation awarded contracts Tuesday for two upcoming road construction projects in Flathead County.

A $2.998 million contract was awarded to LHC Inc. of Kalispell for the Hutton Ranch Connector or Reserve Drive South project.

The project will build a new road connecting Hutton Ranch Road and West Reserve Drive, running east of the Mountain View Plaza shopping center and Signature Theaters.

The project had an engineer’s estimate of $3.538 million.

Some minor work could be done this winter, but the majority is expected to start in spring.

A $1.699 million contract was awarded to Riverside Contracting Inc. of Missoula for the concrete resurfacing of West Idaho Street in Kalispell.

The resurfacing involves six-tenths of a mile. It will start just west of U.S. 93 and end just before the Meridian Road intersection. The project had an engineer’s estimate of $2.037 million.

“They’re going to have to keep traffic flowing at all times,” District Construction Engineer Ed Toavs said.

“They’ll present us with a traffic control plan and we will make that available to the public.”

Work on that project also is expected to start in the spring.

A third project to install a shared center turn lane at Political Hill on U.S. 93 south of Lakeside will have to be put back out for bid because of an error in the original bid package.

“It really won’t change much as far as the public seeing the contractor go to work,” Toavs said. “We’re hoping to bid in December for construction next year.”