North Fork Road work delayed at least another year

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

A $2 million project to reconstruct the upper North Fork Road has been delayed a year after the bids came in much higher than expected.

The lowest bid for the project came in at $3.7 million, noted Michael Traffalis, project manager for the federal Highway Administration during the North Fork Interlocal meeting last week.

The high bids were likely a variety of factors. At the time the project went to bid, the Biden Administration was requiring that federal contractors have a vaccinated workforce against Covid-19. That meant some contractors were looking at having to bring in help from out of state.

In addition, there’s a lot of work in the Flathead Valley, and the project is so remote that workers might have to camp up there — it covers the last five miles of the road.

But since it was bid, the vaccine mandate has been rescinded.

Traffalis said they’ll rework the project a bit and send it back out to bid in the coming months.

The North Fork Road is a county road, but the project is primarily federally funded, with the county providing matching funds. The Forest Service, Park Service and Border Patrol have all either provided a cash commitment or materials.

For example, gravel for the project will come from a Forest Service pit near Whale Creek and the Park Service has committed asphalt millings from a Going-to-the-Sun Road project rebuild to the county.

Traffalis said the hope is to start work in the summer and fall of 2023. On the plus side, rebuilding Glacier View Drive has been added back to the project.

Glacier View Drive is the short road from the Polebridge townsite to the Polebridge Entrance of Glacier National Park.

The road is in very poor condition and floods during the spring.

Separately, Flathead County Public Works Director Dave Prunty said the Flathead National Forest has obligated $5,000 to treat at least a portion of the North Fork Road with magnesium chloride from the Camas Road to the south.

The county will match those funds and it’s estimated they’ll be able to treat about two miles south of Camas for dust control, depending on how the contract comes in.

To the north of Camas, the Resource Advisory Council awarded about $16,500 to treat the road north of Camas. The county asked for about $23,500, so Prunty said the treatment won’t likely go all the way up to Polebridge like it has in previous years.

The road is dirt and gravel north of Glacier Rim to the Canada border, save for a stretch in the Home Ranch Bottoms area that was paved decades ago.