It’s shaping up to be a busy year – and most likely three years – for roadwork in Montana.
The Department of Transportation is in the bidding stages for a number of its 69 projects identified as candidates to receive a portion of the state’s $211 million of transportation infrastructure funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The highway and bridge funds represent a major percentage of the $800 million total the state has in stimulus money.
As of last week, the state’s twice-a-week bidding had already directed $20 million toward specific projects, including a large road project in Billings. In an encouraging sign for the transportation department, bids are coming in lower than expected, said MDT Director Jim Lynch.
Final contracts can’t be hammered out until the state Legislature gives the transportation department spending authorization. On top of the $211 million in stimulus funds, the MDT has an existing budget of $300 million for this year.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” Lynch said of the stimulus money.
To satisfy requirements for the recovery act, the transportation department must have half of its funds obligated by June 30 and the other half obligated by Feb. 17, 2010. If the state doesn’t meet those deadlines, its un-obligated funds will be put back into a federal pool and redistributed to states that have projects ready to go.
For a project to be “obligated,” all right-of-ways must be purchased, design plans completed and proper permits attained, with the project ready to go to bid. Projects must be completed within three years.
One of the state’s potential candidates for stimulus money is the U.S. Highway 93 bypass. Some phases of the bypass, which would redirect traffic around Kalispell, have been completed and some funding has been secured, but much of the estimated $76-million price tag still hasn’t been accounted for. Lynch is hoping to qualify the southern portion of the bypass – running from Highway 93 to U.S. Highway 2 near Appleway Drive – for recovery act funds.
In order for the bypass to qualify for stimulus money, the state has to purchase all the right-of-way parcels along the proposed route. Lynch said there were initially 129 parcels to purchase for the southern portion, but by the time his department held a meeting on March 29 at the Hilton Garden Inn with existing landowners, that number had decreased to 63.
Since the March meeting, Lynch said his department has negotiated four more purchases and seven others are “real close,” effectively bringing the figure to 52 remaining. Though he doesn’t expect the rest of negotiations to be worked out by the June 30 deadline, Lynch is aiming for the February deadline.
Lynch doesn’t see condemnation – which requires a lengthy process – as an option. If negotiations for the southern end hit a roadblock, then Lynch said his department will look at the northern portion of the bypass. He plans to have another meeting with landowners in May.
“We’ve had real good dialogue with the landowners,” Lynch said. “We’re encouraged by the response.”
As the state tries to sort out funding for the bypass, several other significant transportation infrastructure projects are either underway or planned for this year in the Flathead. For one, workers have been busy constructing a bridge to replace the Old Steel Bridge in Kalispell and are expected to finish by late summer. The project will cost $8.7 million.
Flathead County officials are considering Rural Special Improvement Districts for some of its gravel roads. The county has also started a cost-sharing program for dust-abatement projects on gravel roads. In Whitefish, officials recently gave the green light to advertise for construction bids on a large streetscape project that will be completed over a phased-out plan through 2011, beginning this fall.
At Glacier Park International Airport, the major aviation hub of Northwest Montana, a large runway resurfacing project is scheduled for August. About 8,000 of the 9,000 feet of runway will be repaved over a 12-day span.
The airport will be closed three days a week, Tuesdays through Thursdays for four weeks, to allow for crews to work 24-hour shifts and complete the job in a timely fashion. The current surface is 18 years old and airports generally resurface their runways every 18-20 years. Airport Director Cindi Martin said the runway is safe, but it’s an appropriate time to plan for the future.
“We’re being proactive, taking care of things before they become a problem,” Martin said.
Highway and bridge infrastructure is a large industry, providing good-paying construction jobs and sprouting up peripheral businesses around it, ranging from traffic sign providers to heavy equipment rental companies to erosion control specialists. Lynch estimates the stimulus projects will provide 6,500 jobs over the next couple of years. Cary Hegreberg, executive director of the Montana Contractors’ Association, has for months expressed his excitement over the impact stimulus funds will have on the job market.
Construction will begin as early as this spring and summer for some stimulus-funded highway jobs, while others, especially ones that meet the February deadline, will start up next year.