Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) proposes rebuilding 5.8 miles of MT 203 Eastside Highway from Hidden Valley Road south to Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge at an estimated $7.1 million without a developed bike/walking path.
With no current traffic count, comments are due 10/24/14. Concerns to keep in mind: 1) A Bitterrooter worried because the road would be in his historic Bitterroot City home with its fire hydrant; 2) An MDT rep explained Montana is not into buying homes; 3) Another Bitterrooter asked, “Why fix something not broken?”; and 4) My own history in this stretch of Bitterroot Valley as a fifth-generation descendent seven ways with 17 grandparents and my grandchildren having had 21.
Foremost, a sense of this place holds us and attracts others. Yet, Montanans dislike anyone losing personal property without acceptable compensation. Instead, we must enrich this Eastside with:
• Bitterroot City on National Register of Historic Places.
• A bike/walking trail estimated by MTD at $600,000.
• Improved school bus stops/turn-arounds—one across from Mile Marker (MM) 8 connecting Old Eastside Highway, another cresting a hill north of MM9.
• Improved pull-outs—one near El Capitan Loop north, another at the Refuge near Dry Gulch.
• No 5.8-mile long 12-foot wide center lane.
• No more roundabouts.
• A Montana maintained rest stop, not Lone Rock park board, funded by eliminating most of the center lane.
• Turning lanes at El Capitan Loop and Ambrose Creek, Three Mile, Porter Hill and Dry Gulch roads with personal property protection or compensation.
• Limited passing/slow lanes.
• Trees and plants.
• Lower than 65 mph speed limit.
Safe roadside slopes, ditches, drainages, and 90° curves at Rathbun Lane and Ambrose Creek Road are within these goals that preserve our pristine rural countryside, wildlife habitat, and way of life that borders the nation’s Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge treasure.
Cheryl Holden Rice
Stevensville