Kalispell city staff is moving forward with federal grant funding to add temporary safety measures to several downtown streets after the city council approved the grant agreement Tuesday evening. The funds are part of the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All program, which the city adopted in 2024.
City staff submitted an application proposing several traffic-calming projects for the program’s demonstration grant and received an award for an Oregon Street project that included concrete traffic circles. When a new federal administration took office the following year, Department of Transportation (DOT) officials informed city staff of updated parameters for the grant, including that traffic treatments had to be temporary in nature. After a work session with council in October 2025, staff returned to DOT with an amended proposal to install quick-build treatments on Oregon Street.
“We hadn’t heard back from them until about a week and a half ago,” City Manager Jarod Nygren said at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
Staff had until Sept. 10 to complete the new grant agreement in advance of the federal fiscal year’s deadline, Community Development Manager Nelson Loring said.
The project funds installments of traffic calming treatments on Oregon Street from Sunset Boulevard to 7th Avenue East North, including high visibility crosswalks, rapid flashing beacons, pedestrian hybrid beacons, and dynamic speed feedback signs. The project also includes leading pedestrian intervals — a tool that retimes crosswalk lights to give pedestrians a head start before vehicles — at 10 intersections, including:
- 1st Avenue East at the intersections of East Center Street, 2nd Street East, and 4th Street East
- 1st Avenue West at the intersections of West Center Street, 2nd Street West, and 4th Street West
- 5th Avenue West at the intersection of West Center Street
- North Meridian Road at the intersections of Two Mile Drive, Liberty Street, and Three Mile Drive
The estimated cost of the project is $900,225. The demonstration grant funds $720,180 of the project, with the city providing the remaining $180,045. The city’s obligated 20% cost share will come from in-kind match such as staff time and funds from the Westside and Downtown TIF districts, where the leading pedestrian intervals will be located.
Councilors approved the project and associated city funds, allowing Nygren to finish executing the grant agreement with federal highway officials before the Sept. 10 deadline.