Here’s some more information on the upcoming public meeting on the North Fork Road corridor study from yesterday’s Daily Inter Lake . . .
An open-house-style meeting has been scheduled for the public to review and give comments on the corridor study of a portion of the North Fork Road.
The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 27, at the Discovery Center at 540 Nucleus Ave., Columbia Falls. As an open-house style meeting, no formal presentation will be given.
According to an email sent out yesterday afternoon by Pam Murray of PB Americas, the draft North Fork Road corridor study document is now available online and, for those of you traveling down-valley, on paper. (If you came late to the party, the corridor study is a $125K project looking at alternatives for improving the condition of the North Fork Road from Blankenship Road to Camas Junction.)
Ms. Murray said,
The draft corridor study document is now available for your review, please visit the website: http://www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/northfork/documents.shtml and if the link does not work you can find the document by going to the study webpage at http://www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/northfork/ From the menu on the left go to “documents” and then clicking section by section on the draft document.
The whole document is available as one file, however it is a very large file (over 20 M) and will probably time out for most people before the download is complete.
Paper copies of the draft corridor study document are also available at these locations:
- The Columbia Falls Library, 130 6th Street West
- Flathead County Offices, 800 South Main Street, Kalispell
- MDT Office, 85 5th Ave East North, Kalispell
Please review the draft corridor study document. We also invite you to attend the public meeting on July 27, 2010 at Discovery Square, Sperry Auditorium anytime between 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm…
The purpose of the public meeting is to receive your comments on the draft corridor study document. If you are unable to attend the meeting next week you can provide us comments on the draft corridor study document using the “comment on this study” link from the study webpage (see above link).
Additional information…
The entire current set of documents discussing the corridor study includes:
The following poster includes more information about the meeting on July 27th. Note this little item near the bottom: “For reasonable accommodations to participate in the meeting, please contact Paul Grant at 406/444.9415 at least two days before the meeting.” In other words, if you want to get up and say something, call ahead.
The road. Again. This time, the National Parks Conservation Association and Earthjustice are weighing in.
From this week’s Hungry Horse News . . .
Two environmental groups have laid out a legal case against paving a section of the North Fork Road.
The National Parks Conservation Association and Earthjustice have submitted an eight-page letter detailing how paving the road would disturb Glacier National Park.
As many of you know, the North Fork Landowners’ Association Road Committee has been doing an exceptional and balanced job collecting and presenting well-researched road maintenance and dust abatement information. They recently completed and posted their Final Road Report for 2008 – 2009, summarizing all their activities for the past two years. For more detail, including links to all their postings, check out the NFLA North Fork Road Page.
From a recent email sent out by the NFLA Road Committee . . .
The NFLA road committee has arranged to have Laura Fay, a research scientist from Western Transportation Institute out of MSU, come to talk about Dust Control Options. She will speak on September 8th at 10:00 a.m. at Sondreson Hall.
Her talk will include major dust control options, definitions, materials frequently used, location of informational resources and provide information on how WTI can help.
This should be an excellent and informative presentation for anyone concerned with dust mitigation on the North Fork Road.
Here’s an interesting entry from the North Fork Landowners’ Association Road Committee’s February minutes:
Dave Prunty has inquired about landowners’ interest in narrowing the section of gravel road from the end of the blacktop to Camas Creek Road. It is currently 40 plus feet wide and the proposal is to narrow it to a 24-foot width. The 24-foot width would reduce maintenance expenses from the grading aspect and probably plowing snow as well. The county thinks there is some good material that would be “reclaimed” to provide a better driving surface. The county is just beginning to [talk] about this idea and wanted community input.
To comment, landowners can contact the Road Committee at northforkroad@live.com. Flathead County Public Works Director Dave Prunty can be contacted directly at dprunty@flathead.mt.gov, although it’s probably best and most effective to funnel comments through the Road Committee in most circumstances.
By the way, the NFLA Road Committee has been doing some very nice work. See their North Fork Road page for details. Recommended reading.
From the Monday, March 23, 2009 edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Flathead County hopes to get money from the federal Secure Rural Schools Act this summer to make improvements on the North Fork and Star Meadows roads.
The county has asked for $175,000 in federal money to apply crushed rock on the North Fork Road between Camas Road and Polebridge. About $66,000 has been requested to finish chip-sealing 2.7 miles of Star Meadows Road. County equipment and manpower would be used to match the federal money.
Read the entire article . . .
OK, it looks like the Daily Mistake Inter Lake was in error the other day when they listed “a $4.1 million rebuild of the North Fork Road, with paving to the Camas entrance of Glacier National Park” as being on the Flathead County wish list for federal stimulus funds. According to a brief note from Jack Potter, who is Chief of the Division of Science and Resources Management for Glacier National Park, the money would be used for such things as “the washout on the Camas hill and the replacement of the Akokala Creek Bridge.” So, these funds are being requested to make repairs affecting the perpetually disheveled inside North Fork Road on the park side of the river.
The Tuesday, March 10, 2009 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake had an article on the Flathead County Commissioner’s wish list of projects for federal stimulus funds. This includes the following excerpt of interest to North Forkers:
…Roads figure heavily into the county’s proposed stimulus projects.
Among the most expensive road projects on the list is a $4.1 million rebuild of the North Fork Road, with paving to the Camas entrance of Glacier National Park…
It’s not clear why this item is included, since it is likely not enough money to get the job done. Still, it’s interesting that it made the list.
From the Tuesday, January 27, 2009 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
County officials briefed the county commissioners Monday on last year’s efforts and this year’s plans to deal with vehicles churning up dust on the Flathead’s gravel roads.
“We’ve demonstrated to the [Montana Department of Environmental Quality] and to the state that we’re serious about our dust problem,” Commissioner Chairman Dale Lauman said. “We can’t solve all the dust problems. We never will. But we can mitigate some of the problem.”
Read the entire article . . .