Kalispell City Officials to Apply for Federal Grant to Finish U.S. 93 Bypass
The city is requesting $25 million to finish the project, the program’s maximum award size
By Zoë Buhrmaster
Kalispell city officials are applying for a grant to fund the completion of the U.S. 93 Bypass. The application is for the federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program and will be the third time the city has applied for funding from the program to finish the bypass.
On Monday night, city councilors approved city officials’ request to apply to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s program.
“We were a project of merit last year, so we did pass the initial round of review,” Nelson Loring, the city’s community development manager, said. “We’ve scored consistently pretty high; it just depends on the year and funding available.”
Last year, USDOT awarded a total of $488 million to infrastructure projects around the country. This year, the program has $1.5 billion in available funds. City Manager Jarod Nygren noted that the program is competitive and the likelihood of receiving funds gets better with each application.
In 2018, the city received $12.75 million from the BUILD program to finish the Foys Lake Road section of the bypass.
The city’s grant application this year will be for $25 million, the program’s maximum award size. The project site extends from U.S. Highway 93 to Airport Road where officials want to widen the southernmost two miles of the bypass to a four-lane highway. According to Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), the project would replace the existing roundabout at U.S. 93 and Airport Road with a double-roundabout interchange featuring an overpass, four access ramps, and two roundabouts where the ramps connect with Airport Road.
Any additional funding needed to finish the project would be provided by MDT.
The BUILD program was originally established in 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Although the program expires this year, new infrastructure funding opportunities will likely replace it in future years, Nygren noted.
“This is one of those spaces that still causes a little bit of headache,” Councilor Kyle Waterman said about the unfinished section of the bypass. “[This] would make the bypass more complete and actually do what the bypass is supposed to do which is really take some of the heavy truck traffic off the rest of the community.”
The BUILD grant application is due on Feb. 24. Nygren said that the city will likely hear back sometime in June on whether or not they will receive funding.