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Kalispell reviews Main Street Safety Action Plan concept designs; staff may apply for $25 million Safe Streets grant
Summary
City of Kalispell staff and consultants presented final Main Street Safety Action Plan concept designs on April 28 and outlined an implementation-grant timeline; the project concept carries an estimated construction cost of about $26.8 million and a Safe Streets grant application is due in June.
City of Kalispell staff and consultants presented final concept designs on April 28 for the Main Street Safety Action Plan and discussed next steps for a possible Safe Streets and Roads for All implementation grant application.
Development Director Jared Nygren and Kittleson consultant Rachel Grosso summarized the two-phase planning process: an adopted Main Street Safety Action Plan followed by a seven-month concept-design phase that refined safety and streetscape treatments for the downtown core. The package focuses on reduced lane widths and reallocation of space to wider sidewalks and pedestrian amenities, center turn lanes, rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs) at several unsignalized crossings, leading pedestrian intervals at signals, hardened medians in portions of the corridor, and two roundabouts proposed at the southern end of the study area.
Grosso summarized the safety and traffic analysis: between 2018 and 2022 there were 258 crashes on Main Street, including eight serious-injury crashes, and Main Street accounted for about 21% of crashes in the planning area. The consultant reported that under the proposed build scenario travel times on the corridor would increase by roughly 30–60 seconds in 2024 conditions and 30–90 seconds under 2045-growth assumptions; the analysis did not assume diversion of vehicles to the planned west bypass. Grosso said the refined construction estimate for the full package is approximately $26,800,000.
The work session included comments from Montana Department of Transportation representatives. MDT District Administrator Bob Vossen said the agency “is concerned” about timing if the city narrows Main Street before the west bypass is complete; MDT officials told council they support the project conceptually but urged caution on implementation sequencing because traffic will need alternative routing while construction and bypass work proceed.
Staff said the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All implementation grant is due in June and offers construction funding in that program’s cycle of roughly $25 million per award; the grant requires local matching funds (staff said the program’s 20% match rule would apply). Jared Nygren said council could direct staff to submit the application and that a later resolution of intent and public hearing would follow if the council wished to move ahead.
Public comment was mixed. Keisha Davison, board chair of the Kalispell Business Improvement District, said the BID “is very excited about the Safe Streets for All program” and asked for deliberate ongoing outreach to downtown businesses during design and construction. Citizens for a Better Flathead raised concerns about stormwater and the nearby Ashley Creek water-quality review and urged integrating permeable pavement and landscape filtration in design details. Several downtown residents spoke against the project’s cost and near-term construction disruption, with one resident calling the concept “lipstick on a pig” and urging smaller, lower-cost safety fixes.
No resolution or grant application was adopted at the work session. Staff said the next step would be a council resolution of intent to hold a public hearing, then that hearing and, if directed by council, a formal application for Safe Streets implementation funding.
