Commissioners split on road funding

Highway 206 and the North Fork Road didn’t make the cut last week when the Flathead County Commissioners chose a road for the state’s priority funding list for secondary road improvements.

Commissioners Pam Holmquist and Gary Krueger voted in favor of West Reserve Drive on Feb. 6, while Cal Scott voted for Whitefish Stage Road.

The commissioners needed to choose a secondary road to replace Willow Glen Drive, which no longer qualified for the funding list. Krueger, who lives in the West Valley area served by West Reserve Drive, heartily supported that project over the others.

In a letter to the commissioners in December, Montana Department of Transportation engineer Wayne Noem suggested Whitefish Stage Road for the $5 million in available funding. In a meeting with the commissioners in January, MDT Missoula District administrator Ed Toavs described Whitefish Stage Road, Highway 206 and the North Fork Road as “five-star projects.”

Highway 206 had the most traffic of the four secondary roads considered, with 4,310 daily vehicle trips in 2012, but its projected growth over the next 20 years is only 1.8 percent. The North Fork Road saw 290 daily vehicle trips last year and has a 1 percent projected growth rate.

MDT used $1.7 million per mile in figuring out costs for three of the road projects. Rebuilding 9.7 miles of Highway 206 would cost about $16.5 million. The North Fork Road would not require full reconstruction, so that project would cost about $6.6 million for 10.2 miles.

Flathead County’s next secondary-road project is about five years away. Montana will get $27.3 million in federal money this year for secondary-road projects.