LOLO — As traffic grows on U.S. Highway 93 between Missoula and Florence, so does the danger.
However, transportation officials want to know how to make the busy corridor safer and they continued that conversation at an open house on Wednesday in Lolo.
"We've had a number of fatalities just in the last 5 years, and I know that something needs to be done," said Lolo resident Danica Nelson.
Nelson told MTN she's seen her fair share of near misses, including instances with wildlife.
"I know we also have a huge problem with wildlife crossings as you're coming into the town from the south and there are hundreds of elk that try to cross through there. We've had grizzly bears documented trying to cross through there."
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Wildlife is just one reason why the Missoula Department of Transportation (MDT) and Robert Peccia Engineering have been analyzing the stretch of Highway 93 from Missoula — starting at Buckhouse Bridge — down to Florence.
"It's been a two-year study so far and we're closing in on the end," Project Manager Sarah Nicolai said. "We're now at the stage where we have recommendations that we're sharing with the public," she continued.
MDT and RPA hosted the first of two open houses on Wednesday at Lolo School to show community members their safety solutions, many of which for key intersections.
"For example, Cochise, Bird Lane, Rowan, there's nine different intersections where we focused our efforts and at each one of those we evaluated crashes, safety issues, mobility issues," Nicolai noted.
Nicolai said that helping people get on and off the highway safely may mean restructuring how people turn left at an intersection like Rowan.
"A reduced conflict intersection type that's called an R cut, we're making people take a right turn out, and they have a turnaround spot to make that left turn," she explained.
Since the area from Missoula to Florence is so large, the study team has broken it into sections; each having unique safety needs.
"Each segment of the corridor really has a different character and we tried to tailor the recommendations to that," Nicolai said.
Starting by Buckhouse Bridge in Missoula, the study team is looking at a suburban-inspired design. "We are recommending a suburban design so that would feel more like a developed area with curb and gutter and medians."
As Highway 93 South begins to wind towards Lolo, the infamous S-curves present their own challenges.
"Then transitioning as we're getting into the S curves that would be a reduced conflict design where we're just trying to minimize conflicts between vehicles and also the median barrier, so we'd like to see it widened," Nicolai shared.
In Lolo, the speed slows down, but there are more options to navigate, moving on and off the highway and making left turns through traffic.
"That would be again a suburban design and with all of these segments we're also trying to incorporate access management principles, so things like consolidating access points, maybe either removing or redirecting, realigning accesses so that we're minimizing conflicts," Nicolai offered. "It might be if we have 3 or 4 driveways in a row, maybe there's a way to consolidate those into a single access point onto the highway," she continued.
Heading towards Florence, speeds increase, and wildlife like elk tend to frequently cross the highway.
"South of Lolo would be that rural section, and that would be a reduced conflict design area as well, so reducing conflicts, but we're also introducing some potential locations for wildlife accommodations," Nicolai said.
However, funding has not been secured just yet, but the study team doesn't want the price of upgrades to fall on the taxpayer.
"One option is just to plan out and MDT can use core funding through their highway programs. Another option would be to go after grant money," Nicolai detailed.
Funding is something Nelson wants to see take shape so increased safety in the area can come sooner rather than later.
"I know that with these feasibility studies, oftentimes they sit on the shelf, and I don't want to see that happen," Nelson stated.
Anyone looking to learn more can attend Thursday's open house which begins at 4 p.m. at Lolo School.
Additional information about the study can be found here or by calling the study hotline on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at 406-207-4484.
