Road Construction Season Hits Full Swing in the Flathead Valley

A glut of road construction projects are underway in the Flathead Valley this summer, providing critical safety upgrades to some of the region’s busiest transportation corridors while also giving rise to delays and congestion that will likely exacerbate what’s already forecast to be a busy summer in Northwest Montana.

To that end, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is taking extra steps to keep motorists informed and up-to-date about the status of projects as drivers take to the asphalt for weekend getaways, workaday commutes and summer vacation.

In almost any direction, the roads will be bristling with orange safety cones, with traffic sometimes backed up behind pilot cars, and MDT officials are urging patience and understanding as they work to improve the roadways for the public.

“The Flathead Valley is experiencing lots of active projects this year,” Bob Vosen, MDT District Administrator, said. “We’d like to remind drivers to drive safe at all times but especially when you are approaching a work zone. With everything going on, we truly appreciate your patience and hope to minimize delays as much as possible.” 

The projects with the highest profile include: the Kalispell Bypass-Foys Lake Road Interchange, Dern Road and Spring Creek Road, Kalispell Concrete Rehab, Lakeside North and South, Kalispell ADA, Missoula District Low-Noise Centerline Rumble Strips and U.S. Highway 2 – Hungry Horse to Stanton Creek. All of the projects are either under construction currently or will be starting this summer and continue into the fall.

“It is going to impact the greater part of the summer,” Vosen said. “We fully recognize the challenge in front of us, especially on Highway 2.”

That project involves a months-long pavement preservation project spanning a 40-mile segment of U.S. Highway 2 from Hungry Horse to Essex, which serves as the key exterior artery flanking Glacier National Park. In recent years, as visitation surges, it has become a prominent pinch-point for traffic entering and exiting at West Glacier, as well as for motorists circumnavigating the park’s boundary to access other entrances at Two Medicine, East Glacier and Many Glacier.

But the road is deteriorating, and Vosen said a delay in construction would mean the loss of critical federal funding.

“If we don’t get it done this year, I don’t think sections of that road will survive another winter,” Vosen said. “We would be running a real risk that we could get bumped into the next construction category, which means a total overlay and full rebuild. If we had to do that we’d be looking at five to six years in a row of construction on this stretch of road. I doubt anyone wants that.”

Further south in the Flathead Valley, Kalispell is bearing the brunt of the construction pressure.

On the Kalispell Bypass, crews are replacing the original roundabout with a full interchange. A few miles north, at the Dern Road and Springcreek Road intersection, MDT is adding a roundabout and flattening the slope of Highway 2 to increase visibility.

The Kalispell Concrete Rehab project will take place in downtown Kalispell to preserve the current roadway. In addition, MDT will be rehabilitating nine miles of U.S. Highway 93 both north and south of Lakeside.

The Kalispell ADA project will be updating several Kalispell sidewalk ramps to meet current ADA standards and to ensure full accessibility for all. The Missoula District Low-Noise Centerline Rumble Strip project will be installing centerline rumble strips across western Montana. Lastly, MDT will be conducting pavement preservation work on about 26 miles between Hungry Horse and Stanton Creek. 

A map of current MDT construction projects in the greater Kalispell area is available at http://bit.ly/kalispellprojectsmap, with descriptions of the locations of each project and a link to their individual MDT webpage. Each webpage will provide additional project details and contact information. 

The public is encouraged to reach out with comments or questions about these various construction projects. Please call (406) 207-4484 for more information or to sign up for updates.

“MDT is grateful for the public’s patience and understanding as crews work to create better roadways and an improved travel experience for drivers,” Vosen said.