Improvement designs for Highway 232 to be presented this week

At 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Best Western Plus Great Northern Inn, design plans for the reconstruction of more than nine miles of Wild Horse Trail - Montana Secondary Highway 232 - north of Havre will be presented in a public open house by the Montana Department of Transportation which will be looking for feedback from the community.

Concerns about the condition of Hghway 232 have persisted for well over 15 years with various community efforts working to help find funding for badly needed improvements.

The segment of this road closest to Havre was built using old standards and is narrow with extremely deep, steep shoulders with the portion from First Street to the top of the hill going out of North Havre built in 1936, with the portion from the edge of town to mile marker 18 built from 1950 to 1958.

The portion closer to the border was built later, in projects in 1962, 1964 and 1966, and has wider lanes and flatter shoulders.

The reconstruction is still in the early-design phase but includes wider shoulders, straighter curves, flatter grades, and new pavement for a smoother driving surface, a press release from MDT says. Final design is anticipated in 2023.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson, who has lived on the road before, said he knows the road very well and it is in desperate need of improvements as a matter of safety.

"A couple of years ago the MDT had a bus tour up the road, and we had to pull the bus off the road to let an auger go by," Peterson said. "... Over the years, there's been a lot of fatalities on that road, and it's long overdue to be fixed. It's a safety issue."

He said the road was due to be worked on 20 years ago, but the Hill County Commission at the time changed their priorities to pave the road through Beaver Creek Park which he said was also a much-needed project at the time.

He said MDT has been good to work with, and they're looking hard at the long-term health of the roads, but the improvements to this road in particular are extraordinarily important.

"There's going to be more fatalities if we don't get it fixed," Peterson said.

The release from MDT says several opportunities will be available to engage with the project team during design, and the department is encouraging everyone to get involved, share their input and learn more about the project.

Thursday's meeting will go until 6 p.m. and those unable to attend the open house can see the display boards and other information posted online at https://mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/havrenw after the meeting.

The release says MDT will make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities who wish to participate in this meeting and if someone requires an accommodation, they can contact the MDT no later than July 13, to advise the department of help they need by contacting Matt Maze of the Office of Civil Rights, at 406-444-5416, 406-444-7243 or by email at mmaze@mt.gov.

For more information about the project in general, people can call 406-208-0551 or email Liza Gray at lisa.gray@hdrinc.com.