Glacier Rail Park work leads to road closures

Several roads in Evergreen will be shut down for approximately eight months while construction companies prepare the area for the new Glacier Rail Park.

Flathead Drive, Montclaire Drive and Oregon Lane will all be closed beginning Nov. 27 and are likely to remain closed until around the end of June, said Amy Williams, stormwater prevention pollution plan coordinator with construction contractor LHC.

The initial phase of work, which includes installing water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure for the new Glacier Rail Park, is likely to take only around six weeks to complete. Rather than closing the road and opening it repeatedly, the contractor is choosing to just keep the closures in place for the duration of the project, Williams said.

Next week, the contractor will have flaggers where Montclaire intersects the railroad tracks and turns into Flathead Drive near the intersection with Oregon Lane. They will be pulling up concrete and installing utilities infrastructure up to the railroad tracks.

The contractor anticipates having a temporary road set up by mid-December to help folks who live nearby navigate their way to U.S. 2. They will also have flaggers in place to direct traffic.

Williams said the precise date they expect to complete the work is fluid, and could be as much as a month on either side of their June 30 goal.

“It could be May or it could be July, depending on snow and weather,” Williams said.

Williams said the utilities they are installing are primarily for a couple of businesses that are situated along the rail tracks now that will be relocating to Glacier Rail Park when the tracks in town are torn up and replaced with the new ones.

Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.