MDT will replace South Fork bridge

The old bridge across the South Fork of the Flathead River at Hungry Horse should be replaced starting in 2017, the Montana Department of Transportation announced last week.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $15 million. This summer the project received a boost when it was awarded $3.3 million in funding from the Federal lands Access Program. The funding became available after it was determined that a good portion of the traffic going over the bridge was using federal lands.

The bridge provides key access to Glacier National Park, the Flathead National Forest and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

“We’ve already started a field review of the project,” said Ed Toavs, Missoula district administrator for the Montana Department of Transportation.

Toavs said the new bridge will be build to the west of the old bridge. During construction, the old bridge will be used by traffic while the new bridge is being built — similar to the U.S. Highway 93 project over the Whitefish River in Whitefish.

Toavs said it will take the next couple of years to acquire the necessary right-of-ways and to design the structure. The ailing bridge is pocked with patches and is unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists — there is no pedestrian walkway on the old bridge.

The new bridge will be a two-lane structure with a pedestrian/bicyclist walkway.

The long-range plan in the cycling community is to have a bicycle path that extends from Columbia Falls all the way to the west entrance of Glacier National Park.

A grassroots effort by the Gateway to Glacier Trail organization is working on raising $125,000 toward the path, which would run adjacent to U.S. Highway 2.

The funding would match federal grants for the path.

People can comment on the bridge project at www.mdt.mt.gov/mdt/comment_form.shtml.

In the longer term, Toavs said MDT is looking at the broader reconstruction of the highway through the canyon.

That design will also be a two-lane highway and will likely cantilver over the Flathead River. He said the project would avoid the rock of the canyon because it is fractured. MDT currently monitors the rock for movement several times a year.