Study supports 4 lanes for U.S. 2

A study commissioned by the proponents of four lanes for U.S. Highway 2 across Montana says widening the highway will not only help the economy on the Hi-Line, it is a requirement for economic development.

"It would be a catalyst," said Hal Cooper of Cooper Consulting Co. in Kirkland, Wash. "(Economic development) won't happen without economic opportunity and that requires transportation."

Cooper will be at meetings in Havre tonight and in Chinook Wednesday night to discuss his report. He will return next week to attend public meetings being held about a draft environmental impact statement on improving Highway 2 between Havre and Fort Belknap.

The Highway 2 Association hired Cooper to prepare a report on the economic impacts of widening U.S. 2 in Montana after a study done for the state Department of Transportation found that making Highway 2 four lanes in that 45-mile stretch would have little more benefit than an improved two-lane with intermittent passing and turning lanes.

That report, by ICF Consulting, is part of the EIS commissioned after the 2001 Legislature passed a law directing MDT to seek federal funding to widen Highway 2 to four lanes across the state. The first section of highway selected for improvements is the stretch between Havre and Fort Belknap. In the draft EIS, which is out for public comment, MDT selected a four-lane configuration as its preferred configuration for that section. The Federal Highway Administration, which will have the final say on the project, selected an improved two-lane with intermittent passing and turning lanes as its preferred alternative.

The study done for the state by ICF Consulting was limited to looking at the economic impacts within the 45-mile section between Havre and Fort Belknap. The EIS is the first in Montana to examine the economic impact of a highway project and is also one of the first in the country to do so.

Cooper, as well as Bob Sivertsen, president of the Highway 2 Association, say limiting the scope of the economic study to a small stretch of highway is an invalid way of assessing a highway's economic impacts.

"The problem is were the parameters right," Cooper said.

He added that as more highway studies include economic impacts, the standard procedure of limiting the study to the project boundaries may change.

"Our study may do that, change that," Cooper said. "My study answers the question, 'What do you need to do?' They didn't."

Sivertsen said the association hired Cooper to review the ICF study in terms of what would happen if the highway was widened across the entire state. He said the Cooper report raises serious questions about the validity of the ICF report.

"I think it adds a whole new dimension to the EIS," Sivertsen said this morning. "It does what the EIS didn't do, and that's to look at the vast resources we have in the corridor and the potential for economic development if we have a decent transportation system."

David Jones of Jones-Stuckey Ltd. in Columbus, Ohio, a past president of the American Society of Highway Engineers, said limiting the study to a 45-mile section could change the results of the study.

Jones said he thought the study should have looked at the entire state.

"You can have rose-colored glasses on or you can have dimmer shades on," he said.

An FHWA spokesman said the economic study focused on the 45-mile section because other studies have addressed the statewide widening of the highway.

A spokesman for ICF could not be reached for comment this morning.

Cooper said Friday that a four-lane configuration for Highway 2 in Montana is a requirement for significant economic development. He said the ICF study didn't look at several factors, including increased Canadian truck traffic if Highway 2 is widened across the state, the possibility of major economic and industrial development, and the need for economic expansion created by population increases and high unemployment on Indian reservations along Highway 2.

Cooper said the creation of large numbers of jobs is needed to reduce unemployment on the reservations.

"I think for that reason alone the highway should be built to a four-lane highway," Cooper said.

He said the benefits would help many potential businesses in the area, including an ethanol plant being considered at Fort Belknap, a baby-carrot cooperative being considered in north-central Montana, and a cooperative raising gluten-free grain that has three members on the Hi-Line.

He said noted that the route from Winnipeg to Seattle is about 65 miles shorter on Highway 2 than on the interstate, Cooper said. That, along with gentler grades and only one divide on Highway 2, compared with three on the interstate, would attract many truckers, he said.

Tonight's meeting is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. in the Duck Inn Olympic Room. Wednesday's meeting is at 7:30 p.m. at the Chinook Motor Inn.