Bypass connection at hand

Bids will be opened today for the final phase of the U.S. 93 Bypass project.

The project continues the existing bypass north of U.S. 2 to Old Reserve Drive. Opening up Four Mile Drive to connect with Stillwater Road will be rounded into the contract, resulting in a considerable savings. The combined cost is estimated to be $35 million.

Kalispell Chamber of Commerce President Joe Unterreiner made the announcement at Wednesday’s chamber luncheon at the Hilton Garden Inn, noting that the Four Mile Drive project will make access to the Kidsports complex on U.S. 93 much easier.

“When you put that project together with the bypass, it saves about $4 million to $5 million,” Unterreiner noted.

The winning bid will be announced on Sept. 7. Unterreiner said the project will get under way this year and is scheduled for completion by June 2017.

The transportation project, long a priority of the Kalispell Chamber, was featured in a slide show on “New Business and Community Projects” narrated by Unterreiner.

“It’s been a good eight years since we’ve seen this kind of [construction] activity,” Unterreiner said, dating back to the beginning of the Great Recession.

Unterreiner’s presentation was a sprint of data showing plans and architectural renderings of projects that totaled 651,000 square feet and represented an investment of $136.6 million in the Flathead Valley.

Here are some of the other projects discussed:

•  Spring Prairie’s third phase, located north of Lowe’s, is coming to completion by next year, with Discount Tires expected to open next month to join the Dress Barn as one of the last retail facilities. Expected sometime next year is a Chick Fil-A restaurant.
•  Spring Prairie’s fourth phase is also now underway. The first incoming business structure is the Marriott Springhill Suites, whose management has announced a completion date of May 2016 in an effort to be able to book summer visitors next year. The 101-room, four-story hotel will increase Kalispell’s hotel room capacity by 6 percent.
•  In Whitefish, two hotels are currently under construction. The Hampton Inn Whitefish will be a 76-room, three-story, 53,445 square foot facility. The project will cost $8 million and should be completed by April of next year.

The Averill Hotel on U.S. 93 is expected to be completed by June 2016. The design calls for 80 rooms in the 57,000-square-foot building.

Together, the Hampton Inn and the Averill Hotel will represent a 10 percent increase of hotel room capacity in the Whitefish area.

•   Flathead County’s remodel of the old county jail and expansion of the juvenile detention facility were also included in the presentation. A new 9,400-square-foot facility will be connected to the original building, which will itself see a 5,200-square-foot addition to be completed in the spring of next year. The project will cost a total of $4 million.

The county is also constructing its new south campus building near the Earl Bennett Building, costing $6 million on a 30,000-square-foot facility to house the Agency on Aging and other county offices.

•  The Kidsports Complex is planning a major expansion, with the addition of six new multipurpose fields to the northwest of the present fields. Kidsports is competing for $1.5 million in funding made available by the Legislature for youth sports facilities located on school trust land. Only two other projects in the state meet the criteria.
•  West Valley School is just wrapping up its 45,000-square-foot redevelopment, costing $5.5 million.
•  United Way hopes to engineer a purchase of the Gateway Community Center before the end 2015. The Community Center, located in part of the old Gateway West Mall, is a campus setting for a number of community groups such as the Flathead Food Bank and United Way.
•  Former U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg is building a Popeye’s restaurant adjacent to his Burger King on 18th Street and U.S. 93. That project should be completed by December, with a final cost of $1.3 million on the new 4,500-square-foot facility.
•  Canvas Church (the former Christian Center) is doing an expansion and remodel that should be completed by December after a $1.5 million effort.
•  Glacier Steel’s introduction into the Kalispell Industrial Park will cost $2.25 million for their new 30,280-square-foot facility, built by Davidson Construction Inc.
•  Nomad Global Communications Solutions will complete construction on their facility’s addition in September, to help accommodate its recent growth to almost 100 employees. The redevelopment cost $1 million for 15,900-square-feet.
•  Glacier Park International Airport’s work on its cross runway was included in the presentation, funded by an federal annual upgrade program that provided more than $3 million.

Unterreiner underlined that keeping pace with the high investment and construction numbers will mean a continuing investment in infrastructure and in training.

“With this kind of growth, we see the need for highways, we need retail,” Unterreiner said. “All of that is creating opportunities for new jobs, and investment means great things for the tax base here. We need to be working together to get people trained for the jobs that are being created.”

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.