North Fork paving on the radar, again

Montana state Sen. Dee Brown held a meeting last week at the Columbia Falls city hall to discuss the upcoming replacement of the South Fork Flathead River Bridge in 2017 and its impact on the North Fork Road as a detour.

Brown said she was responding to citizen’s questions from a recent economic development meeting in Columbia Falls. She wanted to address the issue early. 

“I think the next few months are going to be fact-finding, gathering information, finding out how we can accept excess and funds in order to make sure that isn’t the dust bowl of 2017,” Brown said. 

Participating in the meeting were Columbia Falls Mayor Don Barnhart, City Manager Susan Nicosia, Flathead County Commissioner Phil Mitchell, Flathead County Public Works Director Dave Prunty and Flathead County Road Bridge supervisor Ovila Byrd.

The meeting was meant to gather information to be able to make a plan for 2017. Brown made it clear at the beginning that a decision wouldn’t be made at the meeting. Public comments also weren’t accepted at the meeting, though there was a large crowd of interested observers.

Nicosia wondered what would happen if 10 percent of the traffic from U.S. Highway 2 diverts to the North Fork Road during the construction. The increased traffic would be about 500-600 vehicles, according to state traffic counts.

Prunty said the road would be impacted more with more traffic, but that’s all he could say for sure. The county would have to have the right material on the dirt portion of road to help it last all summer long. An old law requires the county maintain only the gravel part of the road.

“But, the state does take care of pavement,” Nicosia noted. 

If the state maintained all of the road, the dirt portion included, the county would save about $50,000 on maintenance costs, Byrd said. The 45-mile gravel road currently costs between $150,000 to $250,000 to maintain annually.

According to a recent study on gravel roads, maintenance is more cost effective for gravel roads with more than 250 vehicles per day when they are paved, Byrd claimed. The North Fork Road gets up to 290 vehicles per day on average from Columbia Falls to Camas.

“I have to be a good steward of the county’s money,” Byrd said.

The old bridge across the South Fork will be used by traffic while the new bridge is being built.

Nicosia said that no matter how good the detour is, people could be in line for 45 minutes.

“They’re going to go find something else to do,” Nicosia said about tourists.

Prunty said the Montana Department of Transportation policy is to provide service to county roads that are impacted by a detour around a construction project. MDT has said they wouldn’t provide dust abatement on a road that is not part of the official detour. The city and businesses will encourage people go up Nucleus Avenue instead of traveling through the Canyon.

Nicosia and Brown noted that the North Fork will be used as a detour, whether MDT says it is or not.

Brown said they need to talk to the state even if they won’t provide money for the project.

The meeting gathered public attention when Mitchell put it on his county agenda. A group of about 30 gathered in the council chambers. Mitchell said that he wasn’t going to hide the actions of the county.

Whatever decision he makes, it will be a long-term plan, it won’t be only for 2017, he said.

The issue of whether or not to pave the North Fork Road has been controversial for many decades. The residents are divided on the issue, and government entities are split.

Glacier National Park superintendent Jeff Mow said last spring he isn’t in favor of paving the road up to the Camas Road because Camas Road isn’t designed for high traffic volumes. 

But paving the road to Camas is supported by many Columbia Falls city officials and businesses as an alternative route to the Park.  The North Fork Preservation Association has been fighting to keep it a gravel road for the past 34 years, said association president Debo Powers at the meeting. Their position is that wildlife and fast cars on pavement don’t mix. 

The state completed a corridor study of the North Fork Flathead Road in 2010. Powers claimed that the North Fork community had seen “so much peace and harmony since then.”