State studies highway through downtown

Up to 16,000 vehicles per day can pass through Whitefish on U.S. Highway 93 during the peak summer season, and at one downtown intersection during the summer season more than 8,000 pedestrians are also crossing the highway.

A large number of vehicles and commercial truck traffic, but also pedestrians and bicyclists, are sharing Highway 93 through town and the paralleling Baker Avenue, and all of these combined can create high traffic congestion and safety concerns.

During the peak summer season, the city sees a spike in traffic volumes with 35% more vehicles on the highway in August than November, and 365% more pedestrians and bicyclists on the road, according to the Montana Department of Transportation.

To address these issues and recommend improvements for the highway and associated roadways in the downtown area, MDT, along with the City of Whitefish, is creating the Downtown Whitefish Highway Study. An open house on the study was held last week at City Hall as MDT looks to gather input during the early phases of the feasibility study.

Several state and local plans have examined the highway looking at different lenses such as traffic, downtown business, bike and pedestrians, but this study expects to bring all that to a focus, according to Scott Randall, project manager for Robert Peccia and Associates, the engineering firm hired by MDT to create the study.

“The department is looking at ways to improve Highway 93 through town,” he said. “There’s been a lot of planning done in the past and now we need to decide what to do.”

Randall said the current phase of the study is designed to listen to what the community wants to see for the highway in the downtown area planning for the next 20 years.

“There’s ever increasing traffic volumes and it’s time to get started on this,” he said.

Whitefish saw a population increase of 11% from 2010 to 2017 and saw a corresponding increase in traffic, and those traffic volumes are only expected to increase in the future, according to MDT.

Initial options as part of the study are expected to be presented during a discussion at the end of this summer. The feasibility study is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

Whitefish Public Works Director Craig Workman said the study came out of a meeting in 2018 with MDT representatives when the city urged them to move forward with the work.

“This project has some key elements and a couple of goals to improve vehicle and pedestrian movement and safety while also maintaining the character of the downtown,” he said. “This process is really about getting all the parties back together to work on this.”

The study is expected to recommend improvements for the highway from the intersection with 13th Street northward along Spokane Avenue to Second Street and west to Baker Avenue. The study will also consider improvements on Baker from Second to 13th, and existing or new east-west links between Baker and Spokane.

MDT figures show that traffic volumes in Whitefish have increased by 12% in the past 10 years. Traffic peaks during the daytime hours, from about 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., in both August and November.

MDT points out that safety is one of its primary focus areas, noting that between 2014 and 2018 there were 99 total crashes along Spokane Avenue and Baker Avenue and the streets on the north and south end of town that connect the two main routes through town. Of the crashes, two involved pedestrians and two bicycles.

A dozen focus areas are being considered initially as part of the study — access, aesthetics/character, economic vitality, environment, future growth, heavy vehicles, parking, pedestrian/bike mobility, safety, seasonal traffic, transit accommodations and vehicle mobility.

Listed as challenges were — cost/funding, community vision, competing interests and needs, environmental impacts, existing development and limited right-of-way.

Randall said financial and space constrains for roadways may dictate some of the solutions selected in the final plan.

“The goal is to figure out how to balance the priorities,” he said. “We can’t get everything we want so we have to figure out what is most important. The highway needs to move vehicles, but it also has to be safe for pedestrian traffic.”

The option of creating a commercial truck bypass around downtown Whitefish was suggested by many in attendance. It’s an idea that has been brought up for decades.

Randall said a bypass is really not an option on the table, noting that MDT’s Whitefish Urban Corridor Study of U.S. 93 in 2010 determined a bypass not to be a viable option.

“That 2010 study looked at it, but said a bypass was not going to solve the issues facing downtown,” he said. “We’d still have to figure out how to deal with the congestion downtown and we’re focusing on what improvements we can make to downtown.”

Numerous state and local plans have looked at the U.S. 93 corridor through downtown. Options from previous plans have included an alternate north-south route, improving existing east-west routes and constructing a new bridge connection over the Whitefish River.

The MDT’s 2010 Urban Corridor Study makes several suggestions to alleviate congestion.

For Spokane Avenue, it recommends increasing the capacity for traffic by having two northbound lanes and one south bound lane from 13th Street to Second Street. For Baker Avenue, the plan suggests adding a second southbound lane from Second to 13th Street.

The study suggests diverting commercial truck traffic off Spokane Avenue and Second Street by using Baker Avenue for both north and southbound trucks. It says trucks could be diverted either at 13th Street or at Seventh Street if a new bridge were constructed at that location across the Whitefish River.

The city’s Downtown Master Plan, revised in 2018, outlines the city’s vision for Spokane and Baker avenues. It does not support a widening of Spokane Avenue to add an additional driving lane.

The plan for Spokane from Third to Sixth streets calls for removing on-street parking to add a protected bike path on the east side, while keeping sidewalks on both sides of the road.

From Second to Third streets on Spokane, the plan calls for a bike path between the northbound driving lane and the sidewalk.

For Baker, the plan calls for two southbound lanes and one northbound lane from Second Street south to the Whitefish River. This section would include sidewalks on both sides of the street and a designated bike lane. On-street parking would only be allowed on the east side of the road.

Workman said the new Downtown Whitefish Highway Study currently underway is really about collaborating between the community, the city and MDT on a successful design.

“The city is really open to discussions to find a compromise and ways to improve in the downtown in regards to the highway,” he said.

For more information on the downtown highway plan, visit https://www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/downtownwhitefish/