Skye Park footbridge becoming a low priority

A proposed footbridge over the Whitefish River connecting the City Beach area to Birch Point is taking a back seat to other, larger city projects.

Whitefish City Council voted 4-2 Dec. 3 in opposition of amending a contract with Thomas Dean & Hoskins Engineers to include cost estimates and final designs for the Skye Park footbridge. Additional consulting work related to Phase II would have cost the city about $62,500 on top of the $15,310 agreed to for Phase I engineering work. The additional work would have allowed the city to bid on the bridge project next spring.

Councilors Chris Hyatt, Phil Mitchell, Bill Kahle and John Anderson were opposed. Council will take up the topic again at their Jan. 7 meeting.

Public Works director John Wilson had negotiated a scope of work and “cost not to exceed” fee for Phase II design work. He noted in a staff report that in addition to trail and bridge design, the project also involves easement negotiations with BNSF Railway and steep topography on either end of the project.

“Past negotiations for easements on the BNSF Loop Trail lead us to expect these easement negotiations could be very time consuming,” Wilson stated in his report.

“With respect to steep grades, our goal is not only to accommodate ADA standards, but to build a trail that will also provide much needed vehicular access for the Birch Point sewer pump station. The topography and small available area are such that a substantial design effort may be necessary to achieve our goals.”

Work associated with easement negotiations and steep grades pushed up the total Phase II cost.

Design and construction of the Skye Park bridge is proposed to be paid for with the city’s tax increment finance funds. In January, Wilson had estimated the project would cost about $600,000, although other councilors have estimated the cost could be as much as $900,000.

Councilman John Anderson clearly stated his opposition to the TIF financed project. He says the city needs to wrap up more important TIF projects like building a new city hall and parking structure before focusing on the smaller projects.

“I’m a big supporter of the trails, but I’m also practical,” Anderson said. “We have a limited amount of TIF funds. To authorize spending money on a project that will bump up to $1 million — because those other projects are still in the preliminary stages — I can’t vote to use TIF money on this.”

Richard Hildner, who motioned to approve the amended contract, noted that city councilors had ranked the Skye Park footbridge as a top priority on the city’s TIF priority list, tied with implementation of the Depot Park master plan and behind downtown parking. Construction of a new City Hall was not included in that discussion because TIF funds are actively being set aside to pay for that project.

Hildner said the city should move forward to nail down a final cost estimate.

“If we don’t like the bids then we can halt the project then,” Hildner said. “But we need to find out what we have to work with.”

Phil Mitchell was concerned about paying for design of a bridge without first having an easement in place with BNSF Railway.

“Let’s start dealing with BN to see if we can get an easement and hold off on the engineering,” he suggested.

Frank Sweeney was in favor of the contract amendment, but was concerned about public works adding costs not associated with the project, like constructing an access to a sewer pump station.

“We need to separate that cost out when considering use of TIF funds,” he said. “The cost allocations need to be revisited.”

The bridge will be designed to handle the weight of an emergency vehicle, which according to city engineer Karin Hilding, won’t impact the cost of the project. All of the city’s pedestrian bridges must be built to handle that weight load for safety reasons, she said.

The Skye Park bridge would connect the BNSF loop trail to a planned path along U.S. 93 West via Veterans Peace Park. The path would then go through Kay Beller Park to Riverside Park, then back to downtown, creating a loop. Trails on each side of the bridge would extend to Oregon Avenue on the north and Birch Point Drive on the south.