AT LAST THE BYPASS: Full length of Alternate 93 opens to traffic Friday afternoon

One year ago on a cloudy October day, local, state and federal officials wielding golden shovels made groundbreaking cuts into the 1 million cubic yards of soil about to be parted for the second half the historic U.S. 93 Alternative Route.

Tomorrow, the bypass more than 50 years in the making will open to traffic, marking the completion of the largest project in the history of the Montana Department of Transportation.

“It’s a huge sense of accomplishment,” said MDT project manager Jim Mitchell. “All the planning, all the work up front, all the coordination with all the agencies and permits and public and land owners and working in the mud... Yeah, it’s quite a sense of accomplishment.”

The bypass completion comes nearly five months ahead of schedule, noted by local officials as a sign of Kalispell’s changing landscape.

“It’s great to have it delivered ahead of time like this,” Flathead County Commissioner Gary Krueger said. “Everyone has noted, the conception of the bypass has been a long time in the works.”

“I’ve been here for 20 years and they’ve been working on it the whole time I’ve been here,” said Kalispell Chamber of Commerce President Joe Unterreiner. Finally seeing the bypass open, “It’s a tremendous celebratory event for all of us.”

The 4.5-mile, $34 million northern half of the Kalispell Bypass is the result of about 160 workers employed by MDT, local contractor LHC Inc., and a handful of subcontractors working through the winter and driving ahead in the spring mud. But the project in its whole is a product of more than a half century of sweat equity from the community and local officials.

AS MDT District Administrator Ed Toavs remembers growing up in Columbia Falls, his father told him about the earliest conversations regarding the need for a new route to handle the valley’s growing traffic needs. Toavs’ family first moved to the Flathead in the late 1940s, not long before Kalispell realized a need for traffic alleviation in Kalispell’s downtown, which marked the beginning of the 60-year, $56 million bypass excursion.

“The way the story locally goes is that it wasn’t taken very seriously at first,” Toavs said. “As the decades went on and people saw how things were growing and that maybe things weren’t so far-fetched after all.”

The project took decades to finally materialize on paper, and by 1992 an advisory committee was established to guide an Environmental Impact Statement that produced the first U.S. 93 alternatives by 1994. By the end of that year, the West Kalispell Bypass became the objective.

By that time, Toavs said a recent population spike had produced even more traffic and a new urgency on the project.

“Those who were familiar with it in the ‘80s and ‘90s, our population really picked up and that’s when the traffic demand really started to hit the Flathead,” he said. “Back then, it was just a two-lane from Somers to Whitefish.”

Between 1995 and 2010, bypass plans were revised several times before construction bids opened and closed around 2000. After years of public meetings and re-evaluations, the EIS was signed in 2006, while interim projects like Reserve Loop near Glacier High began in 2007, bringing the valley’s first roundabout.

The 4-mile southern portion of the bypass finally opened to traffic in November of 2010. The half of the project was such a long time coming that an MDT email notifying residents and media contained exclamation marks of excitement.

INTERIM PROJECTS and right-of-way acquisitions continued in the early 2010s, bringing the project a little closer to the final vision. Meanwhile, traffic continued building on U.S. 93 in Kalispell.

On Oct. 7, 2015, crews from LHC, the awarded contractor, jumped into their scrapers and began peeling earth away from the spot where public officials had jammed their ceremonial golden shovels.

The work ahead included moving 1 million cubic yards of dirt, constructing five bridges, on ramps, off ramps, two sound walls and 4.5 miles of four-lane highway, making it a more complex project than most on the crew had handled before.

Complexity aside, Mitchell had been involved with big projects before. He was a part of the highway project on U.S. 2 between Libby and Troy, the largest in MDT history at that time with a price tag of about $33 million for 16 miles of work.

“Even though that one was large in volume and dollars, it wasn’t near as complex or time consuming as this project,” he said.

Time consuming as it was, the initial timeline actually slated completion for spring of 2017. Don Brummel, project manager for LHC, said a collective decision to work through the winter put the project on track for an early opening.

“We made a decision as a group that we were going to get it done in one year, and we accomplished it,” Brummel said. “We rolled the dice with the winter… and you just can’t beat the winter we had last year.”

By spring, grading was finished, sound walls were up and bridges were wrapping up one by one. Brummel credited the camaraderie built over the months in harsh conditions to the project’s expediency.

“We had a good plan we took on together as a team,” he said. “We had great support from the community, our different subcontractors and the owners of our company.”

WITH NEW infrastructure in place, Toavs said Kalispell is now more equipped to handle the population that continues to grow across Flathead County. Traffic counts along U.S. 93 north of Kalispell show up to 43,000 cars a day, Toavs said. Early estimates project the bypass will take about 15,000 cars off U.S. 93, dispersing traffic as more residential projects continue to develop.

“It’s a great example of the benefits of the bypass. Between Main Street and the bypass you need those arterials to carry the future traffic load,” he said.

With the bypass set to open tomorrow, many local officials are reminded of the work still ahead. City officials hope to designate the bypass as the new U.S. 93 route. In the coming years, the southern half of the bypass will be expanded to four lanes and a new bike path will be paved after the spring thaw; and future projects still require funding.

“It’s important to celebrate the victory but not just spike the football and move on… That’s important to keep top of mind for highway policymakers,” Unterreiner said. “It’s certainly a step but there’s still a lot of work to be done with the city and merchants. How that part operates and how you keep traffic moving through downtown, that work is still out there in front of us.”

IN THE final months, as crews wrapped up paving and cosmetics, Mitchell and Brummel sat in awe at the fruit of their labor. Both say the upcoming opening ceremony will be bittersweet, but for different reasons.

For Mitchell, who’s been with MDT for almost 40 years, this elaborate project will be his last before retirement.

“The project just had a little bit of everything. It was really unique in that way and for me personally, to end my career with the largest project in the state’s history was pretty cool. In general, we’re pretty proud of how much work we got done in 12 months to be able to give ‘er to the public.”

Brummel’s experience was unique in that the project brought him home after years of work away from Kalispell. Brummel said bringing his kids to the construction site over the last year means a generation of pride for the Brummel family’s impact on the Flathead Valley.

“I’m very appreciative and happy that I could contribute… Because Jeff (Claridge, vice president of LHC) hired me and enabled me to come home here to be with my family instead of traveling on the road all the time,” Brummel said. “I brought my daughter and son when we were digging test holes and let them dig a little… They were a part of this.”

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