This is a reminder of the Montana Department of Transportation meetings on Highway 35 safety scheduled Wednesday June 4 (tonight) at the White Oak on Highway 93 in Somers, and Thursday June 5 at the KwaTaqNuk in Polson. Open house starts at 6:30 p.m., with program at 7 p.m. by MDOT Director Jim Lynch. If you have concerns about highway safety and truck traffic, this is the time to speak up and submit comments.
If you cannot attend the meetings, public comments will be accepted until July 7. You can email comments to MDOT at the following link:http://www.mdt.mt.gov/mdt/comment_form.shtml.
Or mail them to:
Dwane Kailey
MDT Missoula District Office
PO Box 7039
Missoula, MT 59807-7039
Comments don't need to be long. If you have experiences to relate, by all means do so. But the important thing is to let the department know you are concerned. Comments can be as simple as:
"I would like a safer Highway 35,"
or
"Highway 35 is too narrow and should be closed to through truck traffic,"
or
"Highway 35 should be closed to trucks with pups and trucks hauling hazardous materials."
Some points that were made at our community May 16 included:
- Highway 35 is too narrow and has no shoulders;
- Highway 93 on the west shore is wider, with shoulders, and has been improved for trucks;
- Highway 35 roadbed is not adequately constructed for heavy trucks;
- Highway 35 doesn't receive federal funds for maintenance;
- Highway has many driveways and highway entrances, many with poor visibility;
- Heavy trucks cause some houses to shake;
- Trucks hauling pups tend to drift across the center lines and fog lines, especially those with long connecting tongues;
- State should determine average distances of the highway from homes and lakeshore on each side of the lake;
Suggestions included:
- Prohibit through travel by semi-trailer trucks on Highway 35 between Polson & Bigfork;
- Prohibit through travel by trucks with pups, fuel trucks and/or trucks carrying hazardous materials;
- Require special permits for trucks hauling hazardous materials;
- Set up a permanent truck weight station at edither the north or south end of the lake loop;
- Designate Highway 35 a national scenic highway (though this wouldn't limit trucks);
- Reduce the speed limit to 35 mph along the entire east lakeshore;- Do more to enforce the existing speed limits;
- Give trucks a tax break for not using Highway 35;
- Route loaded trucks to Highway 93 and empties to Highway 35.
Please feel free to post any highway-related comments or stories you may have on this blog site
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Mis-routed Cargo
View from Crane Overlook
Swan Range near Bigfork
Lake County Leader photo by Jennifer McBride
This blog is to provide a forum for discussion of safety issues on Highway 35 in northwestern Montana, particularly in the wake of recent accidents and a major fuel spill involving large semi-trailer trucks. The fuel spill has forced the evacuation of five lakeside homes and may take months or years to clean up.
Appropriate for 35?
Mis-routed Cargo
Highway 35 Flathead Lake
View from Crane Overlook
About The Highway
- Montana Highway 35
- This state highway in northwest Montana runs north from Polson along the east shore of Flathead Lake, one of the largest natural lakes in the West. It continues through the artist village of Bigfork and along the Swan Range to Kalispell, with a connecting link to Glacier National Park via Montana 206.
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.
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.
Highway 35 needs more restrictions on heavy trucks
Highway 35 Swan Mountains
Swan Range near Bigfork
Fuel spill
Lake County Leader photo by Jennifer McBride
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