Scenic Montana 35: MDOT Highway 35 Meetings

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

MDOT Highway 35 Meetings

The Highway 35 meeting Friday May 16 at Yellow Bay Clubhouse provoked strong interest and good discussion. About 85 people took part, with most comments supporting restrictions on truck traffic. The consensus statement at the end favored routing through-traveling commercial truck traffic to Highway 93, or in the alternative routing hazardous materials and trucks hauling pups or perhaps only long-tongue pups to Highway 93.
Alex Strickland from the Bigfork Eagle attended the meeting and wrote a good account. For those who didn't see it, follow the link below:http://www.bigforkeagle.com/articles/2008/05/22/news/news02.txt Dwane Kailey, Montana Department of Transportation administrator for the Missoula district, attended to hear issues and concerns. He gathered questions to be investigated prior to the MDOT public meetings in June.
Those meetings will be Wednesday June 4 at the White Oak on Highway 93 in Somers, and Thursday June 5 at the KwaTaqNuk in Polson. Both start with open houses at 6:30 p.m. and presentations at 7 p.m. Note that this is a change from my earlier email. Preliminary word I had received from Helena indicated that the locations would be reversed.
Please be sure to attend one or both sessions, to make your voices heard. Past efforts to deal with traffic issues on Highway 35 suffered because folks who felt strongly about it were unable to attend key meetings. If you cannot attend either session, email comments to MDOT at the following link:http://www.mdt.mt.gov/mdt/comment_form.shtml.
If for some reason this link doesn't work, let me know as soon as possible.
You can also mail comments to Dwane Kailey, MDT Missoula District Office, PO Box 7039, Missoula, MT 59807-7039.
Comment deadline is July 7, 2008.

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Welcome

Welcome to this blog, which has been created by Don Schwennesen, a resident of Highway 35 for 28 years with a small fruit orchard that my wife Rose and I have operated for 28 years. Our concerns about safety on this highway have grown with the increasing volume of truck traffic and size of the rigs. This is a low-standard winding scenic route along the east side of Flathead Lake, with a roadway of 24 feet or less. Though a higher-standard route exists on the west shore, U.S. Highway 93, most truckers prefer Highway 35 because it is a few miles shorter and has fewer hills.

In 1991, more than 900 East Shore residents signed petitions and had our state legislator introduce a bill to make this a scenic highway and place some limits on truck transport. The bill was killed in committee under heavy industry lobbying.

Certainly there is need and room for some truck traffic on Highway 35. We have cherry packers shipping fruit, loggers harvesting timber on the east shore, several businesses using construction and earthmoving equipment, at least one gravel pit and three gravel haulers, moving vans helping people move, several taverns and restaurants, and at least one grocery and gas station all requiring deliveries, and doubtless others I have missed.

The fact remains that Montana 35 is only a state highway. It is not built to modern federal standards. It is narrow and winding, without shoulders, with an old roadbed, with many stretches very close to Flathead Lake, with many driveways and approaches that are not always very visible, and with a history of some very nasty truck spills, at least three involving fuel, one involving hazardous wastes, and one that caught fire and burned a lakefront home to the ground.

The state doesn't have much right-of-way along most of this highway, so the chances of upgrading it are slim. Past surveys to relocate the road higher on the mountain have encountered intractable terrain problems, and a higher road location would likely be unsatisfactory to truckers, who don't even like to climb the hills on Highway 93. The state lacks even the funding to do major improvements on the 10 miles of Highway 35 between Bigfork and Woods Bay. Meanwhile, the roadbed is inadequate for the heavy truck use it now receives, so the road deteriorates steadily. It’s not the place to be routing the bulk of traffic traversing western Montana.

In my opinion, this highway needs stricter truck weight and length restrictions and limits on trucks hauling hazardous materials, in addition to greater respect for existing speed limits. But rules imposing these things will not mean much without industry support, because enforcement is extremely difficult. In addition, we need some new way that residents and carriers can register complaints about local conflicts, so these can be reviewed and resolved. It is simply impossible to expect the highway patrol to deal with every complaint.

I welcome lively discussion of these and other Highway 35 issues in this blog, as long as it is civil and respectful.

Scenic Montana 35

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

MDOT Highway 35 Meetings

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