Loading...
3-12-13 Technical Advisory Committee Minutes Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee Minutes of March 12, 2013 Page 1 of 7 KALISPELL TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES OF MEETING MARCH 12, 2013 CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL The meeting of the Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee was called to order at 1:30 p.m. Committee Members Present were: Tom Jentz, Doug Russell, Ed Toavs, Marc Liechti, Dave Prunty, Gary Engman, Cal Scott, Bob Vosen, Tim Larson, Mark Munsinger, John Donoghue, Susie Turner, Sheila Ludlow & Ted Luehr. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Toavs moved and Liechti seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the September 6, 2012 TAC meeting. VOTE BY ACCLAMATION The motion passed unanimously on a vote by acclamation. HEAR THE PUBLIC Morey Grove said in his opinion Whitefish Stage Road across the Stillwater River and out to West Reserve Drive is one of the most heavily used roads from 2:00 pm – 9:00 pm and if the state is going to spend money it deserves to be a priority. There is a steep bank near the river with no guardrails, it is narrow, school buses use it and deer cross the road and he feels there will be an accident there. OLD BUSINESS: None. NEW BUSINESS: URBAN AID PROJECT Jentz noted the next agenda item is selecting our next urban aid project. The Kalispell Urban Area receives about $600,000 a year and it is intended for urban aid projects which are nominated by this committee. Previous projects included the Highway 93 Main Street improvements which were partly funded by urban aid funds and completed in 1983 and North Meridian Road which was completed in 2006/2007. Jentz added in order to complete North Meridian Road the city had to borrow several years ahead in advance and it took the city until 2010 to pay for it. Since 2010 the fund has been accruing about $600,000 and the balance is approximately $1.2 million in the bank which seems like a lot of money until you start building a highway. In 2011 MDT asked TAC to come up with a priority selection and Whitefish Stage was selected from East Idaho north to West Reserve as a placeholder. That recommendation was reevaluated and in September of 2012 they came up with the following road nominations that TAC thought had merited reconsideration: Grandview Drive – US 93 to Evergreen LaSalle Extension – Conrad Drive to LaSalle West Reserve Drive – US 93 to US 2 Whitefish Stage Road – East Idaho to West Reserve Drive Willow Glen Drive – Lower Valley Road to Conrad Drive TAC had requested additional information including traffic counts Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee Minutes of March 12, 2013 Page 2 of 7 and general costs from MDT which have been provided to the committee members. Jentz said in the meantime Ed Toavs of MDT came up with another alternative in relation to the extension of Four Mile Drive from the west end of Kidsports to Stillwater Road. The City of Kalispell had discussions with Kidsports to work together to extend Four Mile Drive with the majority of the funding coming from Kidsports donations. Toavs said since Four Mile Drive is proposed to eventually cross the Alternate Highway 93 Route if Four Mile Drive was built prior to that time the construction would sever Four Mile Drive and it made sense to build the road with a bridge over the alternate route instead to save the cost of reconstruction when the future alternate route is eventually constructed. Toavs suggested TAC also consider this project for the urban aid funding to see if it has merit and it was added to the list of alternatives. Toavs noted there is a provision in the bill that addresses new projects and limitations for urban projects that currently are not a road and not classified. Lynn Zanto, MDT said to expend Federal Highway funding, which the urban funds are, roads have to be functionally classified either as a collector or an arterial route. In the case of non-existent roads or new construction, Federal Highway guidance does allow them to functionally classify predicted new roads in advance of constructing them as long they can guarantee that they will go to contract within six years. Federal Highways is updating their functional classification guide and in their update it reduces that timeframe to four years. To make it eligible for the urban funds they would have to work with Federal Highways and their Transportation Commission to functionally classify it and put it on the Urban Highway System. Jentz distributed photos showing the exact location of Four Mile Drive and where the alternate route would be located. Luehr had several questions regarding the Four Mile Drive project funding, the need for the project, surrounding development, and the funds Kidsports will attempt to raise, which were addressed. Luehr said he thought this was a worthwhile project to consider. Toavs noted he asked James Freyholtz of MDT to put together traffic volumes for all the routes including accident data adding there would not be any data for roads that have not yet been constructed. Prunty said the spreadsheet for Whitefish Stage Road didn’t reference a bridge across the river but he assumes that one would be built and Toavs said yes and he added to try and rehabilitate the old bridge and tie it into a new grade wouldn’t be practical. Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee Minutes of March 12, 2013 Page 3 of 7 James Freyholtz, MDT credited Sheila Ludlow, MDT in Helena for putting the projection and traffic volume maps together. Freyholtz reviewed the details of the maps for the committee and noted the modeling corresponds with the Kalispell Transportation Plan. Larson asked if the stats for West Reserve from Hwy 93 to Hwy 2 factored in Reserve Loop and Freyholtz said no they don’t have stats for that connection. Freyholtz reviewed the accident crash rates using data volumes from 2007 to 2011, which are the number of accidents per million vehicle miles traveled and they were as follows: Willow Glen Road – 1.61; Whitefish Stage Road – 0.78; and West Reserve Drive – 2.29, which was the highest crash rate. Marc Liechti asked about the LaSalle Extension that was discussed at the last meeting and Toavs said there were concerns about that project including the Conrad Cemetery hill, and the wetlands/ stream/ stormwater issues in front of McDonalds, behind ShopKo and on private property. In addition, Snappy’s and Perkins would need some mitigation because of the major R/W issues the extension would create especially if they got the traffic volumes as suggested on the model. Vosen added there are wetland agreements between the owner of Snappy’s and FWP which would also make the construction of that roadway challenging. Luehr asked as part of the LaSalle extension if there was going to be any work done at the intersection of Willow Glen and Conrad Drive and Toavs said only safety work on the overhead flasher. Luehr said he would like to see Conrad Drive come into Willow Glen at a 90 degree angle and much further south from where it currently does. Jentz added then Conrad Drive would dead end into Willow Glen and Willow Glen would become the continuous road and Luehr said yes. Jentz suggested that would be considered a safety project instead of an urban aid project. Further discussion was held. Larson said he travels West Reserve between Hwy 2 and Hwy 93 quite a bit and if they choose not to fund this project with Urban Aid Funds what are the alternative funding mechanisms for completing this alternative. Jentz noted when you look at the costs of West Reserve compared to Four Mile Drive, Four Mile Drive would be about 2 additional years of the $600,000 urban aid funding compared to 45 years for West Reserve. Toavs said the only other funding eligible for that route is urban money and then state funded construction which is even more limited. Jentz said if the intersection of Whitefish Stage and West Reserve fails there could be some safety money to redo that intersection and Toavs agreed. John Donoghue asked for additional information on the meeting that took place regarding the Four Mile Drive bridge and Jentz noted the Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee Minutes of March 12, 2013 Page 4 of 7 city has been trying to negotiate a permanent easement on the Kidsports property for several months. Kidsports came forward during these discussions and stated they were interested in raising funds to continue the development of the Kidsports facility which would include the completion of Four Mile Drive to Stillwater Road. Jentz continued when Toavs read that in the newspaper he came up with the idea to add Four Mile Drive to the alternatives for Urban Aid funds which led to the staff-level meeting to discuss that proposal. Donoghue asked why Four Mile Drive wasn’t a part of the bypass construction and Jentz said the design of the alternate route always has showed a full interchange at Four Mile Drive and Four Mile Drive going over the top of the alternate route. Vosen added the grades play into that too. Marc Liechti asked what are the developers of the 3000 homes proposed for that area contributing to the extension of Four Mile Drive, which would benefit the developers greatly? Jentz noted there were some conditions for improvement. Liechti asked if the traffic counts included the traffic generated from proposed development in this area and Kathy Harris, Stelling Engineers said the original model was most recently created in 2005/2006 but there have been some updates to account for the Starling subdivision and others around the bypass. MOTION Larson moved and Turner seconded a motion to nominate the Four Mile Drive extension as Kalispell’s next Urban Aid Project. COMMITTEE DISCUSSION Jentz noted they would still be looking at cost sharing for this project and this project could be completed in about two years. Toavs said there is one R/W issue that could cause a problem but if that can be solved the four year time limit would not be an issue for MDT. Larson said he agrees with the recommendation and the benefit of private and public monies coming together on a project that would be beneficial to the community and could be constructed fairly soon. Larson said it would also take relieve some traffic congestion at the intersection of Four Mile Drive and Hwy 93 North. Prunty asked if the improvement to Stillwater Road would be causing a problem at the stop sign located at the intersection of Three Mile Drive and Stillwater Road, especially during the high traffic times that the events at Kidsports generates. Steve Herzog added the issue seems to be traffic leaving Kidsports on weekends not getting there. Jentz noted that route would probably be used by people on Three Mile who are going to the college, hospital and the shopping areas in north Kalispell. Liechti asked if improvements would also be made to the Four Mile/Hwy 93 intersection and Toavs Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee Minutes of March 12, 2013 Page 5 of 7 said the signal timing will have to be studied and perhaps a center turn lane would have to be added to both Four Mile Drive and Hwy 93 North. Jentz added the extension of Four Mile Drive would provide another direction for the traffic to leave the area. Further discussion was held. Harris, Stelling Engineers said the future intersection of Four Mile Drive and Stillwater Road is one issue but the bigger issue is Stillwater Road is going to see additional traffic with this proposed extension and it is not in great shape right now and that will have to be a consideration. Jentz noted the developer of the Starling subdivision would be responsible for upgrading Stillwater Road to a minimum three lane urban design if/when Starling takes off. Toavs said regardless of this decision the construction of Four Mile Drive to Reserve Loop is a stand-alone segment of the bypass but could be tied to the extension of Four Mile Drive if the timing is right. MDT owns all the R/W from Four Mile Drive to Reserve Loop. Jentz said one of the major goals of TAC and the community is getting the alternate route completed. VOTE BY ACCLAMATION The motion passed unanimously on a vote by acclamation. URBAN AREA BOUNDARY MAP Jentz noted the committee was sent a map that showed the urban area boundary which was discussed at the September 2012 TAC meeting. Jentz briefly reviewed the purpose of the map and the urban funding program. The committee agreed the urban boundary map should be as presented should signed by the Chairman and submitted to MDT. FLATHEAD COUNTY’S NEXT SECONDARY ROAD PROJECT Prunty said the Flathead County Commissioners had four choices for the county’s next secondary road project as follows:  West Reserve from the round-about west to Farm-to-Market Road;  Whitefish Stage Road from ½ mile north of Reserve to Hodgson Road;  8 mile stretch of the North Fork Road – from the end of the oil to Camas Road; and  Montana Hwy 206 from Woody’s to the Columbia Heights/Hwy 2 East The commissioners selected West Reserve from the round-about to Farm-to-Market Road and MDT said that should include bike paths to tie into existing bike paths from West Valley School to Glacier High School. The project could begin from five to ten years with an estimated cost of $5 million dollars. Further discussion was held. Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee Minutes of March 12, 2013 Page 6 of 7 MDT VARIOUS CITY, COUNTY, STATE AND FEDERAL HIGHWAY PROJECTS IN THE AREA MDT reported the following projects are slated for the Flathead area:  Reserve to Hutton Ranch Loop w/chip sealing, final striping, drainage and seeding;  Whitefish West Project from Lupfer to Karrow – includes a new bridge structure and ½ mile of new roadway;  Foys Bend Stream Mitigation Project – providing bank stabilization/rehabilitation and planting 6,000 trees and 20,000 willow cuttings;  Bigfork – slope flattening and guardrail project has been completed;  Baker Avenue/Whitefish Stage Road;  Shady Lane Bridge structure repair;  Highway 2 East (by McDonald’s in Evergreen) storm drain project in Spring of 2014;  Highway 2 West/Dern Road – short term safety fix is to install an advanced warning detection system at that intersection in late spring. The long term safety project would be to rehabilitate that roadway;  Springcreek/Sunset intersection on Highway 2 – reconfigure the two approaches to make them line up with one another – to be let in September; and  Highway 35 and 206 traffic signal at Woody’s. Overlays:  Kalispell west from Hart Hill – 4.2 miles;  Good Creek North – 5.2 miles;  Dickey Lake – 5.2 miles;  Swan River north through Bigfork that will be chipped next summer; and  West Glacier East – 7.7 miles. Other areas:  For those heading to Missoula starting next week there will be short delays – safety project north of Polson in the Jette Lake area.  Heading west to Libby there will be road construction. COMMITTEE DISCUSSION Luehr asked if there will be a full interchange on the alternate route at Three Mile Drive and Toavs said yes and Highway 2 West is also set for a full interchange. Toavs added Two Mile Drive has no connectivity to the bypass – overpass only. Luehr suggested instead of putting a bridge over Two Mile Drive a right-on, right-off be constructed onto the southbound side of the alternate route. Luehr said there would be no tall grades and no bridge. Toavs said from his standpoint they wouldn’t want to change anything and cutting off a local road causes major concerns. Further discussion was held. NEXT MEETING DATE Next meeting will be scheduled when necessary. Kalispell Technical Advisory Committee Minutes of March 12, 2013 Page 7 of 7 ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at approximately 3:10 p.m. /s/ Thomas R. Jentz /s/Michelle Anderson Thomas R. Jentz Michelle Anderson Chairman Recording Secretary The minutes were approved as submitted/amended on 04/23/2013.