Less than a month after opening an extension of Rose Crossing north of Kalispell, local residents are expressing frustration about increased traffic they expect will only worsen in the coming years.
Rose Crossing resident Debbie Street and civil engineer Mike Fraser planned to bring their concerns about the road to the Kalispell City Council on Sept. 17 after the Beacon went to print.
Street said that traffic has been increasing on the road in recent years and that it’s only gotten worse with the extension of the road through the Kalispell North Town Center to U.S. Highway 93. Much of the road is posted at 35 miles per hour, but in the middle there is a 10-mile-per-hour curve that surprises some drivers that are unfamiliar with the route. Street said she frequently hears drivers jamming on their brakes to avoid going off the road or a collision.
Street said she has spoken with city and county officials but has not gotten the response she’s wanted: county officials say the road is fine and city officials say it’s out of their jurisdiction.
“This is a public safety issue and the city and the county need to work together to resolve the issue,” she said.
Fraser, the civil engineer Street hired to review the road, agrees with her. He said a number of factors have led to increased traffic on Rose Crossing between U.S. Highway 93 and U.S. Highway 2. One of the biggest is near constant-congestion on Reserve Drive just north of Hutton Ranch. Fraser said drivers looking to avoid Reserve are turning to Rose Crossing now that it provides a direct connection between two of the valley’s highways. Even before the west end of Rose Crossing was extended, traffic on the road was increasing. According to Fraser, in 2012 the road saw an average of 905 cars per day. In May 2018, it had increased to 1,100 cars a day on weekends and 1,800 cars per day during the week. Fraser said those numbers will only grow.
Street and Fraser said that they believe because part of the road is in the city and part of it’s in the county, the two governments should come together and come up with a joint plan to alleviate traffic issues. Tom Jentz, Kalispell city planner, said he is aware of the issue but notes that the curves that cause the biggest issues are in the county and therefore outside the city’s jurisdiction.