Bypass segment a top backup project

It might be a long shot, but if enough cash is found, the Montana Department of Transportation wants to start building a stretch of U.S. 93 Alternate Route in north Kalispell.

Anticipating that some “grab-bag” money might be available later this year, the department recently asked each of its five district administrators to pick one priority backup project that is not funded but could be ready to go at a moment’s notice.

That way each district has a project if money materializes — whether from a lack of emergency road work eating into funding or a project coming in under estimate or being unable to proceed.

“A number of smaller things kind of came together and prompted everyone to say, ‘Have backups ready,’” Missoula District Administrator Ed Toavs said.

Whether enough money can be found is still a big question, but building the northernmost segment of the Kalispell bypass from U.S. 93 and West Reserve Drive south to Reserve Loop is the top backup project for the Missoula District, Toavs said.

With engineering done, needed land acquired and extensive utility relocation agreements in place, all the $8 million phase of the bypass is waiting on now is money.

“We have that one kind of in the bank, so to speak, so if money becomes available we can let it to contract,” Toavs said.

The project would cause big changes for drivers, remaking one of north Kalispell’s busier intersections.

It would end West Reserve Drive just west of where it now meets U.S. 93 but give the road access to a new stretch of bypass running from the highway intersection down to Reserve Loop near Glacier High School.

“When it does get built, it will be one of the most impactive pieces to the general public because of redoing that intersection,” Toavs said. “Trying to rebuild that under traffic is going to be really challenging.”

The rest of the northern half of the bypass has been split into several phases. None of them are funded in the Montana Department of Transportation’s five-year construction plans:

• Extending the bypass from Reserve Loop to Four Mile Drive. That’s where Kalispell plans to use some of its federal highway money to build Four Mile Drive with a bridge over the path of the bypass for a full interchange there.

• Building a bridge over the path of the bypass on Three Mile Drive for a full interchange.

• Extending the bypass from Four Mile Drive south to Three Mile Drive, and from there south to U.S. 2 where it would meet the bypass’s southern half.

The northern half of the Kalispell bypass is estimated to cost between $30 million and $35 million to build.

Montana Department of Transportation opened the southern half of the bypass, from U.S. 2 to U.S. 93 south of Kalispell, in November 2010. It cost about $22.6 million to build.

The entire Kalispell bypass project required acquisition of 133 parcels of land, a process that started in the 1990s. 

All except three parcels in the Two Mile Drive area have been bought for the project, at a cost of about $32.7 million.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.