Bike path paving set for week after Labor Day

In a few weeks cyclists will have a new off-highway route to bicycle from Coram to West Glacier. LHC construction has been grading in the new bike path, which will hook up with an existing path that runs from Hungry Horse to Coram.

Paving the new path is set to start Sept. 6 and should take a few days, if the weather cooperates, noted Doug Peppmeir, project engineer with TD&H engineering of Kalispell.

About 4.1 miles of the path are new and will run adjacent to U.S. Highway 2 on the west side of the highway. The remaining parts of the path utilize Old Highway 2 in two sections, one near the Dew Drop Inn and the other near Montana Raft Co. Signage will direct bikers to those rural highway sections, which don’t see much traffic.

The new path will run all the way to the West Glacier underpass, tying in with the sidewalk. Fundraising for the path has been a multi-year effort by the Gateway to Glacier Trail group, which had to raise about $116,000 match to a federal grant, plus an additional $58,000 in maintenance funds for future maintenance of the project.

But then the state anted up the match portion, so the trail group is continuing with plans for other enhancements to trail. It hopes to eventually get an easement on lands owned by Glencore, so the path could run along the Flathead River from Columbia Falls to the Canyon. Those negotiations are still continuing.

The idea is to eventually have an attractive bike path from Columbia Falls to Glacier National Park.

The reconstruction of the South Fork Bridge, which starts next year, is expected to include a bike/pedestrian path and when Highway 2 is expanded in the Canyon, a bike lane is part of that project as well, though it’s years down the road.