Planners hope to finish Bullhook repairs before winter

Work on the $2.6 million Havre Storm Drain Project is underway and city planners are hoping the concrete box culverts, which were built in Kalispell by a Havre native, will be installed and the project finished before winter sets in.

"If it stays nice and dry, they can get it done. If we have to, we'll have a winter shutdown," Public Works Director Dave Peterson said.

Peterson said the project, to install concrete culverts in Bullhook, the drainage that runs from south of town under much of Havre and drains storm runoff into the Milk River, is moving along well. As long as the canal is kept dry, work can continue, he said.

The company doing the work is Kincaid Civil Construction out of Arizona.

Tom Anderson, owner of Glacier Precast Concrete out of Kalispell, said his company is building the concrete box culverts that are being installed to replace the old and collapsed culverts that will serve as pathways for city drainage.

A box culvert is essentially a pipe with a square exterior. Because of the nature of Bullhook, a round pipe wasn't going to work, Anderson said, and a rectangular shape was needed.

Anderson said his company has been building box culverts for seven or eight years, and he got the job after bidding on it.

Anderson said he moved from Havre to Flathead County in 1987 because he could not find enough work in Havre. But there's still a special place in his heart for Havre.

"It always kinda warms my heart to be hauling stuff over to Havre," he said. "I take a lot of pride in the hometown thing."

Anderson said he still has family in Havre and the Havre Storm Drain project is not the only one his company is supplying precast for.

"We're also supplying the precast concrete for Antelope Court, for the new subdivision south of town," he said. "And we've done a lot of work for Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, for improvements out there, since they got swamped out here a few years ago."

Havre City Finance Director Doug Kaercher said the Havre Storm Drain Project cost is $2.6 million. Havre will pick up $1.1 million and another $1,041,000 is paid with a State Revolving Fund loan and $500,000 comes from a Treasure State Endowment Program grant.