Hwy 232 improvement open house draws crowd

Montana Department of Transportation project engineers came to Havre to host an open house to present their preliminary designs for a $15 million improvement project for State Highway 232, also known as Wild Horse Road, and drew a larger-than-anticipated crowd.

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

The segment of the 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, and 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 current designs for MDT's project feature wider shoulders, straighter curves, flatter grades and new pavement from Fouth Avenue North to Road 445 North.

Travel lanes will be widened to 11 feet with 3 to 4 foot shoulders. bringing them in line with current design standards and addressing safety concerns about the road.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson attended the open house and said he can recall 14 fatalities on the road just off the top of his head, and the project is badly needed.

The project will also eventually include upgraded signage and striping, drainage improvements and culvert upgrades, as well as intersection improvements, but the design is still in it's early stages.

MDT Great Falls District Pre-Construction Engineer James Combs said the design work is around 30 percent completed and is primarily focused on alignments and grades.

Combs said he's optimistic about how the project is proceeding and he doesn't see any major roadblocks so far.

He said the open house serves a dual purpose. First, it allows the department to use the knowledge of community members who are bound to know more about specific problem areas with the road and what issues need to be addressed that the design team may not be aware of, and second, to keep them aware of MDTs plans.

Project Engineer Joel Horn said any information they obtain is invaluable for them as they proceed with design work, filling in gaps in their knowledge that couldn't otherwise be addressed.

"(Community members) are privy to intricacies that we have no way of knowing about," Horn said. "Any input they can give us is going to be incredibly valuable in getting them a better road."

Less than a half-hour into the two-and-half-hour open house nearly 20 people had shown up for the event, which featured posterboards with information about the project and a scaled map of the road that people could write on and point out areas of concern.

Horn said he anticipated 10 people over the course of the whole event, and he's happy so many took time out of their days to come.

He said design work will likely take another year, but it doesn't appear that money is a problem, so he's confident the project can be completed in their three to five-year timeframe.

Combs said he wants to keep the community up to date on what MDT is planning and make sure no one, especially people who live on the road, is surprised by the changes they eventually make.

"We want to make sure we're communicating with the public with what we're doing and why we're doing it," he said. "... I don't want people to be blindsided."

He was also pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who showed up and said the department is hoping to do more of these events as design work proceeds.

Combs said the project also has a website at https://mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/havrenw and he encourages anyone with questions or comments to get in touch with the department.

The posterboards at the event provided details about the anticipated environmental impacts and what the department is doing to keep track of and address them, including shifting the roadway slightly east to reduce construction impacts.

The wider roadways are expected to impact wetlands and said impacts will be kept track of as design progresses and proposed grade changes will also accommodate additional snow drifting storage in the ditches.

As existing culverts are replaced, drainage pattern changes will be monitored to identify possible problems and address them.

The department expects minimal impact to the private pond between Willow Creek Drive and Fresno Road.

The boards also said that right-of-way acquisition is anticipated throughout the project to accommodate the wider roadways, and impact of these acquisitions will be evaluated through out the design process as well.

Existing mailbox turnouts will be maintained within the project limits, and areas with needed fence replacement will be identified as design work continues.

Final design for the project is anticipated in 2023 with construction planed for a 2024 to 2025 timeframe.