MDT administrator says improvements coming, but it will take some time
Trouble at traffic lights, bad intersections and speed limits were front and center at last week’s city council meeting as Montana Department of Transportation District 1 Administrator Bob Vosen met with the Columbia Falls city council.
Vosen touched on a variety of concerns by councilmembers. He was accompanied by MDT construction engineer John Schmidt.
Vosen told council that problem intersections like Highway 206 and Highway 2, Highway 2 and the Blue Moon and city street intersections at 4th Avenue, Sixth Avenue and Meadow Lake Boulevard were being analyzed for improvements.
Council has long sought dedicated left-hand turn lane signals at those intersections, particularly Meadow Lake, which has seen numerous accidents as the signals flash yellow, but are not dedicated red, yellow and green.
Vosen cautioned that simply making them dedicated could have impacts down the line. U.S. Highway 2 sees very high volumes of traffic as folks travel to Glacier National Park. A traffic study in 2020 found that from the railroad tracks east through town, about 18,000 cars a day travel down Highway 2. From the tracks back to the west, that number is even higher — 23,000 a day.
Council would also like to see a new stop light at the Truck Route and Highway 2, another bad intersection. Vosen said MDT would need a formal letter from the city and they would look at it.
The challenge, even if one is warranted, is finding funding for it, he noted.
Council and Mayor Don Barnhart have also suggested that more of downtown have 25 mph speed limits and speeds should be reduced on the North Fork Road heading into town, as folks have been clocked going 50 mph at the end of Nucleus Avenue.
Vosen told the city to write a letter requesting a traffic study and the MDT would do one — but it would take awhile. It generally takes one summer to do the study and then several months to crunch the data. Speed limit changes are, in turn, looked at and approved by the state transportation commission.
Vosen also gave an update on some projects in the region. The Highway 206 reconstruction project is now complete, and plans for a sidewalk/shared use path from the end of Fourth Avenue West down Railroad Street won’t see construction until 2025, as the state has to secure some right-of-way, most notably from the Church Women United who own the Klothes Kloset.
They apparently own a triangle-piece of land that is currently street at the intersection on Nucleus and Railroad Street.
Vosen and council also talked about ways to make pedestrian crossings safer on Nucleus Avenue, now that there’s a lot of tourist traffic.
He cautioned against flashing lights at every pedestrian crossing as it can cause “sign saturation” for motorists.
He noted that bulb outs are helpful and some communities even have buckets with flags at the intersections. A pedestrian grabs a flag and waves it as they cross and then puts in back in the bucket.
Having said that, a flashing light at 7th Street and Nucleus at the ice cream shop might be helpful, Schmidt suggested, as motorists coming up the hill can’t always see pedestrians.