EDITORIAL: No time to spare on fixing Reserve

Those who drive U.S. 93 and West Reserve Drive on a regular basis know the headache of getting caught in traffic gridlock, especially during peak times of the day. And we know that starting this weekend — the kickoff to the summer visitor season — the traffic will get even worse for the next several months.

Now that state Department of Transportation Director Mike Tooley also has experienced the bumper-to-bumper grind on West Reserve, the discussion has started about how best to fix the traffic problem in north Kalispell.

The glaring question, though, is how did it get to this point? It’s difficult to pin the blame on any one government entity, but it certainly seems like more collaboration among the city, county, state and federal governments is warranted in a high-growth corridor such as north Kalispell.

Problem is, the city of Kalispell has been going gangbusters approving hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space that is largely served by a federal highway. At what point does the city require adequate infrastructure before putting out the welcome sign out for more new retail stores? It’s a conundrum, because those new businesses create jobs, which in turn create economic prosperity.

The U.S. 93 bypass will alleviate some congestion, but highway officials already have acknowledged the bypass won’t do enough to alleviate the load on West Reserve Drive and the main stem of U.S. 93.

The state is looking for its next urban priority road project in Flathead County, and widening West Reserve to four lanes from Home Depot past Whitefish Stage Road certainly seems like a high priority to most of us. Adding another two lanes to West Reserve would help, but it’s only one piece of a complicated problem.

Years ago there was serious discussion about punching Grandview Drive through to Whitefish Stage Road to create another much-needed east-west connector. A new bridge over the Stillwater was deemed too costly and the idea evaporated. It’s difficult to say whether an extension of Grandview Drive would even be feasible today, given the subdivision growth off Whitefish Stage.

The city of Kalispell has a Technical Advisory Committee for transportation issues that includes city, county and state officials. Flathead County has its own Road Advisory Committee. State highway officials are busy with their own planning and have close to $130 million in current projects — including the bypass — slated for the county over the next five years.

There is likely some interaction that takes place among all of these road planners, but we need them working together even more. We need to feel confident that if and when money is available for road projects, there is an adequate plan to get traffic from Point A to Point B.