Cost prevents four-lane in Lohman highway project

In February, Governor Steve Bullock appointed me to the Montana Transportation Commission, representing Commission District 3. The three corners of the district are Blaine County in the northeast, Glacier County in the northwest, and Lewis & Clark County in the south. Since my appointment, I have been poring over data related to highway transportation throughout my district, the revenue availability to various kinds of highway projects, and the mounting needs for reconstruction, repair, and maintenance that exceed the current revenue stream. The bulk of money available for our highway reconstruction and repair comes from the federal government for four broad categories of highways: interstate, national, primary, and secondary. There are limitations on how much may be transferred from one category to another. 

On June 22, the Commission approved the annual update for the 5-year State Transportation Improvement Program. The STIP is a very important document because it determines the schedule for various phases of construction projects from preliminary engineering, to right-of-way acquisition, to bid letting, and then to actual construction. Currently scheduled for bid-letting in 2019 is the Lohman E & W project that will complete reconstruction of U.S. Highway 2 between Havre and Chinook. Lohman E & W has been programmed for reconstruction as a two-lane highway, with broad shoulders, gentle slopes in the barrow pits, and with 2.5 to three miles of passing zones built with five lanes.

As currently programmed, Lohman E & W will be the most expensive reconstruction project in District 3 during the five-year period of the current STIP, and the fifth most expensive in the state during that same period. Those costs are driven by the challenging terrain of the Milk River valley including numerous canals, creeks, sloughs, wetlands, canals, bridges, distance to acquire viable road-fill and the need to move the highway in many locations further from the railroad in order to accommodate the length of semi trailer’s crossing the railroad and stopping before entering the highway.

In fact, of all the projects to be let in 2019, the Lohman E & W project accounts for approximately 61 percent of the total construction projects to be let in the District that year. Indeed, the cost is such that it must be spread across two fiscal years. Despite the cost, the need to replace this dangerous and inadequate section of U.S. Highway 2 has driven the decision to include this project in STIP, and, as designed, fits within the existing revenue stream.

I appreciate that some folks will be disappointed that the Lohman E & W project will not be the long hankered for four-lane highway on U.S. Highway 2. Inevitably, a four-lane highway in that 10.5-mile length of the project would be much more expensive than the current design. Not quite twice as much because about 3 miles will be built as five lanes with a center turning lane. But building the remaining seven miles as four lanes would require about twice as much for right-of-way, material, labor and equipment operation. I’ve calculated, conservatively, that the extra cost for a four-lane would be 60 percent more.

To insist on a four-lane highway in this stretch of U.S. Highway 2 would be like trying to drive a 1 ½ inch peg through a 1-inch hole, because the money simply isn’t there. The Transportation Commission cannot raise the gasoline tax, only the legislature can. The increase approved last session by the legislature only keeps Montana revenues adequate to match the availability of federal money, not to expand the size and cost of projects. To fund the increased cost of a four-lane in the Lohman E & W project by cutting other construction projects in the District would mean eliminating nearly every one of the other projects scheduled to be let in 2019 including needed work on the Beavercreek Road south of Havre and the bridge replacement on the Milk River west of Zurich on North Fork Road. To spread a more expensive four-lane project over a longer period of time would inevitably delay other projects in the queue and would delay scheduling any of the desperately needed reconstruction on the highway between Chinook and Harlem.

From the beginning, the most vocal advocates for a four-lane highway have never answered the question of how to pay for the high cost of that design. Until they do, I will remain committed to keeping the Lohman E & W project on schedule and to get desperately needed reconstruction projects on U.S. Highway 2 from Chinook to Harlem scheduled as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Greg Jergeson

Chinook