Bypass completion possible in three years

After more than 20 years, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the Kalispell U.S. 93 bypass. 

Five-year construction plans approved this week by the Montana Department of Transportation target a fully functioning bypass within three years.

The department’s director, Mike Tooley, and members of the Montana Transportation Commission signed off on the “red book” construction plans Thursday. 

Those plans chart an aggressive schedule for completing the U.S. 93 Alternate Route — exactly what the Kalispell community lobbied the department and the transportation commission for in September. 

“It’s plugged in good,” Missoula District Administrator Ed Toavs said about the project.

The Montana Department of Transportation will rebuild Three Mile Drive in spring 2014 to accommodate the bypass. That project will construct a bridge over the future path of the bypass to allow for a full interchange there and reduce the hassle and cost of future construction.

Other plans call for Montana Department of Transportation to build the bypass from U.S. 2 to Three Mile Drive in 2015. 

In 2016, the department would extend the bypass from Three Mile Drive to Reserve Loop, where it would connect to the northernmost phase of bypass on which final construction is now underway now (the road is expected to open this month). 

The timing of those two projects might be switched around, Toavs said.

“With all the work going on up north, it might make sense to reverse those for a complete interchange at Reserve Loop and tie in neatly with the ramps and the bridge at Three Mile Drive we’ll build there.”

Design work starts this month on Four Mile Drive, the city of Kalispell’s next federal urban highway project. That project will extend Four Mile Drive half a mile to the west to Stillwater Road and build a bridge over the future path of the bypass to allow for another full interchange there. 

“Our goal is to try to deliver that project in 2015, possibly slipping into 2016,” Toavs said.

The projects — estimated to cost about $36 million — would result in a fully functioning northern half for the bypass and tie into the southern half of the bypass that opened in November 2010.

Toavs cautioned that all the Kalispell bypass work is contingent upon Congress maintaining adequate funding levels for Montana and other states. The existing federal transportation funding bill expires in October 2014. 

“First and foremost we need a federal transportation bill and we need it to be somewhat close to what we have now. If we lose a bunch of money, that affects us statewide and could affect our ability to deliver,” Toavs said.

Kalispell Planning Director Tom Jentz cheered the state’s fast-track plans to finish the bypass as a “huge step for the city of Kalispell.”

“Over the next three years we will have significant highway construction, jobs for our contractors and a chance to get our transportation system on track. We’re looking at building more than three miles of new road, new highway. It’s going to change the way we do things in the Kalispell area and in a good way. To come together this fast after 20 years is amazing. It’s a big step forward for us.”

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