A years-long project to add a pedestrian path along Blacktail Road took a considerable step forward last week when the Flathead County Commission voted to officially send the path to bid.
The path, a product of the county’s involvement with Community Transportation Enhancement Program (CTEP) funds, would run from Stoner Loop to Soren Lane along Blacktail Road.
It will include excavation, embankment construction, retaining walls, a single-span weathered steel bridge, concrete abutments, pavement, drainage and landscaping.
Initially, the project was much larger, but available CTEP funds forced designers to scale back. The base project for which contractors can bid is the Stoner Loop to Soren Lane section, but there’s also an additive alternate that includes extending the path from Soren Lane to the YWAM campus.
Whether the additive section will be part of the project will depend on available funds. CTEP projects require a local match, which in this case will be made by a group in Lakeside, not the county.
Interested contractors must turn in their bids by April 27. Bids will be opened at 9:15 a.m. at the commission’s chambers in Kalispell. The county recently saw the completion of the Swan River Road Trail, which was another CTEP project. After the Blacktail project gets moving, the proposed path running between Coram and West Glacier will go to bid next.