Options on the table for Kalispell Bypass Project

The Spring Creek Room at the Hampton Inn was abuzz with traffic — pedestrian traffic — as Montana Department of Transportation officials discussed plans to redesign the southern portion of the U.S. 93 Alternate Route Thursday.

The state is in the early stages of an initiative known as the Kalispell Bypass Project, which aims to look at the southern-most 1.5 miles of the bypass and redesign the intersections at Airport Road and Basecamp Drive.

Separately, the Department of Transportation also is starting the process of taking out the roundabout at the Foy’s Lake Road interchange and redesigning that intersection.

Construction at Foy’s Lake could start as early as this fall, while the project on the southern section of the bypass isn’t expected to begin construction until 2024.

“These intersection improvements are a ways out,” said John Schmidt, district construction engineer with MDT.

As part of the development process, state transportation officials met with community members to discuss plans and priorities for the transportation corridor. Plans are in place to expand the two-lane highway to a four-lane road and construct an overpass over Airport Road, but the future of the roundabouts at Airport Road and Basecamp Drive (also known as the Siderius interchange) is less certain.

At the event on Thursday, officials presented four potential redesign options for the current roundabouts, ranging from leaving those two roundabouts in place, to replacing the roundabouts with traffic signals, to adding additional roundabouts on the new overpass.

Bob Vosen, district administrator for the Department of Transportation’s Missoula District, estimated construction costs for the Kalispell Bypass Project will range from $20 million to $25 million. He also expects additional costs to come out of the project design, right of way and other miscellaneous expenses. The project will be funded through the National Highways Program, a joint state and federal funding program.

The roundabouts at Airport Road and Basecamp Drive were installed as part of the initial construction of the bypass, completed in 2016. Vosen explained the interchanges were put in place to take advantage of existing funding at the time, but they were never expected to be a permanent solution.

“They were always intended to be an interim solution just to get us started,” he explained.

He recognized there has been confusion over the future of the temporary infrastructure, but said he thought the public was aware the roundabouts were initially designed to come out when funding eventually became available.

“There’s misunderstanding about why the roundabouts were there in the first place,” acknowledged engineer John Schmidt. “They were an interim solution. We always knew we wanted interchanges, but it was a matter of timing and funding.”

Now, they are brainstorming the next phase in the process as they consider exactly how to redesign these intersections.

For Airport Road, one option is a “diamond interchange.” In this scenario, two roundabouts would be constructed on the north and south ends of the new overpass bridge. On the south end, the roundabout would feed on-and-off ramps to U.S. 93 Alternate and Airport Road. On the north, the roundabout would also create on-and-off ramps and connect to Cemetery Road.

Another Airport Road option is a loop ramp to the south of the new overpass and a five-way intersection with a traffic light on the northern side of the new overpass bridge, connecting the U.S. 93 bypass, Airport Road and Cemetery Road.

The state is also considering this same construction with a roundabout in place of the traffic signal at the north intersection of Airport Road, Cemetery Road and the highway on-and-off ramps.

The final Airport Road proposal includes a loop ramp on the southwest side of the new overpass, with traffic lights at this intersection and the northern intersection of Airport Road, Cemetery Road and the highway on-ramp.

For the Basecamp Drive intersection, the Department of Transportation is proposing two side streets with stop signs connecting separately from Basecamp Drive to the north and south-bound lanes of U.S. 93 Alternate. The proposals include a “Compact Quad” option with two short side streets and an “Extended Quad” option with a longer northwest street connection.

Another option is a ramp with a stop sign on the north side of the bypass and a loop entrance on the southwest entry. This design would require the creation of tunnels underneath both ramps to accommodate the pedestrian and bike path along the highway.

The final option is to leave the Basecamp Drive roundabout in place in its current configuration.

Officials presented video simulations of each potential redesign and ratings of each proposal based on criteria such as travel time, environmental impacts and long-term maintenance needs.

Meeting attendees were invited to indicate which of these factors are their top priorities for the intersections. The most popular responses were considerations of the capacity of the bypass and vehicle conflicts at the intersections.

Engineer John Schmidt said this process of proposing alternatives and soliciting public feedback is pretty typical for projects of this nature. “We’re really interested in what the public has to say,” he said.

So far, he said public input has been largely positive about the potential to remove the roundabouts.

“People are really just excited about the overpasses and interchanges,” he related. “There’s a lot of excitement around the elimination of the roundabouts.”

But at this early stage, he said no one proposal has emerged as the top contender yet.

Vosen added that all of the preliminary plans could be adjusted as the project develops. He said he expects one of the current proposals to “be the basis” for the eventual reconfiguration, but he said the actual redesign could combine some of the current ideas or add in new proposals.

“We’re really early in the feedback-gathering stage,” he said. “We’re willing to look at all options.”

He also stressed public input, safety and finances will be the key determining factors of the eventual project.

“My whole goal is, I’m safety-driven,” he emphasized. “We’re stewards of taxpayers’ dollars. It needs to be solid financially but we can’t compromise safety.”

Vosen also explained, “We’re taking feedback, but it can’t be a popularity contest. It has to be what’s truly good for all.”

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.