Transforming Kalispell’s Transportation
As the city’s population grows and major developments within the municipality come to fruition, officials are working to upgrade Kalispell’s road infrastructure to bring connectivity and safety to motorists, pedestrians and cyclists
By Maggie Dresser
In the next few years after road crews shrink the traffic lanes running through downtown Kalispell, pedestrians will walk down expanded sidewalks outside of businesses and cyclists will be able to safely ride on First Avenues east and west using separated bike lanes.
The opportunity for these infrastructure upgrades were recently made possible when the Kalispell City Council earlier this month officially adopted the city’s Main Street Safety Action Plan, a multi-agency partnership that aims to enhance safety and accommodate the growing traffic within the municipality.
Now that the project has officially launched, city planners are working to implement a $25 million U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All grant with construction on Main Street and U.S. Highway 93 along with additional funding sources. In collaboration with the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), Flathead County and Kittelson & Associates, a Boston-based consulting firm, officials plan to begin the construction within the next few years.
Kalispell Planning Services Director PJ Sorensen says Main Street and First Avenues east and west will be prioritized, with construction beginning in the coming years. Plans include reducing Main Street to three lanes while reallocating additional space for widened sidewalks and landscaping. Separate bicycle lanes on First Avenues east and west are planned for the northern section and shared lanes known as “sharrows” are planned for the southern end.
Other safety features like curb extensions and crosswalks with flashing beacons and leading pedestrian intervals, which allows a 3- to 7-second start ahead of vehicles, are also in the works.
“Main Street is a top priority,” Sorensen said. “A lot of other things came up because one thing is connected to the other and it’s all part of the transportation system.”
As Kalispell’s population continues to grow at an average rate of 2% each year, city officials are working to mitigate the added traffic congestion while reducing accidents. Since Main Street is also a major highway, the city has been identified as a “transportation disadvantaged community,” with an outsized number of traffic accidents.
According to traffic data, there were 2,234 crashes within the planning area between 2018 and 2022, 258 of which occurred on Main Street. There were seven fatalities within the planning area and 38 serious injuries.
“One of the issues that’s out there is depending on your point of view, it serves different purposes,” Sorensen said. “To MDT, it’s their highway corridor. If you’re a business owner downtown or a shopper, you’re looking at it as more of a Main Street downtown area.”
Within the last decade, Kalispell’s population has grown from roughly 21,000 residents to nearly 30,000 along with a slew of new developments and construction projects ranging from the completion of the city’s Parkline Trail in 2022 to the addition of hundreds of housing units.
In July, the Kalispell Center Mall on Main Street sold to Texas-based SHOP Development Company, a business with a portfolio of retail and mixed-use properties across the southern United States and the Midwest. While the mall’s future remains uncertain, the new owners have confirmed they are working through concept and design planning ideas for the property and the property will likely see significant transformation.
Running parallel to the mall, the linear Parkine Trail replaced the former railway extending from Woodland Park west to Meridian Road and is part of the Kalispell Core and Rail Redevelopment program.
Completed two years ago, the Parkline Trail has served as a major attractant for new business development, including The Silos apartments, which will eventually bring almost 200 units to the former CHS grain elevator property west of the mall on Center Street and Fifth Avenue.
At the corner of Third Street West and Main Street, the plans for the 86,000-square-foot Charles Hotel along with an eight-story parking garage at First Avenue West and First Street East is in the works as developers work to get the $80 million project off the ground.
While the Main Street Safety Action Plan is being implemented to enhance safety and reduce traffic accidents, it will also address the city’s growth, which has increased by 19% since 2018, adding 4,500 new residents.
In response to the population growth, the city has seen a spike in the Kalispell Fire Department’s calls for service, which has grown by more than 23% in the last six years.
Kalispell voters in March passed a $4.6 million public safety levy that will add new firefighter and police officer positions along with a third fire station on Farm to Market Road, which will be constructed in the coming years.
The Main Street Action Safety Plan intends to ease logistics for emergency vehicles and includes multiple roundabouts in areas like the intersections on Center Street and Woodland Park Drive. Several road extensions will bring more connectivity to Kalispell while reducing traffic congestion and response times, including the planned extension of Grandview Drive to Evergreen Drive near Flathead Valley Community College along with safety upgrades planned near Logan Health on U.S. Highway 93.
“I’m excited about Grandview and Evergreen for safety reasons and connection to the community college and of course the north and south upgrades,” Kalispell City Councilor Jessica Dahlman said at a June meeting. “The hospital and college complex are just so dangerous, and we need more pedestrian safety in that area.”
