Sun Road will see more work; North Lake McDonald bridge replaced
A car drives down the Sun Road recently.
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road has been targeted for Great American Outdoors Act funding.
The Department of Interior recently announced a project that will reconstruct 9.3 miles of the Sun Road from the foot of Lake McDonald to the intersection with the North Lake McDonald Road. The project will include “curve widening, super-elevation on the horizontal alignment for transition zones, and addressing limited distances between curves.”
The second part of the project would replace the bridge over Upper McDonald Creek that services landowner residences and the Lake McDonald ranger station. That project will demolish the existing bridge and replace it with a 270-foot long clear span, highway-rated bridge.
The bridge currently is a one-lane bridge with a wooden deck. It has been repaired in the past, as it was damaged by a November flood in 2006 and crews fixed it the following winter.
The bridge was considered a liability, however, in the summer of 2019, when some fire trucks couldn’t cross it to fight the Howe Ridge Fire.
The bulk of the Going-to-the-Sun Road reconstruction was completed in the fall of 2018 after 11 years, but crews have been working on the aforementioned section this fall, repairing historic sluices along that stretch of the highway.
This work could mean more summer traffic delays in one of the busiest sections of the storied highway.
Nationwide, about $1.6 billion will be spent on deferred maintenance projects.
“We continue to make progress to deliver on the purpose of this historic conservation legislation. We carefully evaluated each deferred maintenance project and land acquisition to maximize the return on investment for the American people and deliver on the promises of this unprecedented opportunity,” said Margaret Everson, Counselor to the Secretary and Chair of the Great American Outdoors Act Task Force.
The act was championed by Montana’s congressional delegation, including Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester.
The cost of the project isn’t known yet. It still has to go under an historic and environmental review, according to the Park Service.