Governor to sign 4 for 2 bill

Tim Leeds Havre Daily News [email protected]

Legislation eight years in the making will come to fruition Friday when Gov. Brian Schweitzer signs a bill removing restrictions on the law directing the Montnan Department of Transportation to widen U.S. Highway 2 to four lanes across Montana. “It removes a roadblock,” Bob Sivertsen, president of the Highway 2 Association said Wednesday. “It created two different standards for funding of highways in the state of Montana.” Schweitzer, who made his support of making Highway 2 four lanes an issue in his first campaign for governor and his re-election campaign last year, is scheduled to sign House Bill 222 at noon Friday. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Ken “Kim” Hansen, D-Harlem, and carried in the House by Rep. Julie French, D-Scobey. The bill removes language in the law sponsored by Sen. Sam Kitzenberg of Glasgow in 2001. Kitzenberg proposed the bill in an effort to increase the safety of the narrow, winding highway and to increase the chance of economic development in the northern tier of the state. In negotiations in the Legislature and with the state Department of Transportation, then headed by Director Dave Galt, Kitzenberg agreed to amendments that limited funding for the bill. The amendments included that only federal funds could be used to widen Highway 2 and that spending on the Highway 2 projects would not “jeopardize other future highway projects.” Hansen's bill removes those stipulations. MDT Director Jim Lynch testified in support of Hansen's bill this legislative session. Sivertsen said the Highway 2 Association has been trying to get this job done since the bill was passed, although he acknowledged that it would not have passed in 2001 without the amendments. “This is really a step forward, and Kim did a great job for us,” Sivertsen said. “It took us four sessions to accomplish it, but there was more bipartisanship than I have seen in several sessions.” He said the bill's impact on widening Highway 2 will be major. “That gives us an equal opportunity, you might say, and then we have to make a case for this upgrade.” The first project examined, widening the highway from Havre to Fort Belknap, came back with a recommendation to build an upgraded two-lane highway with wider lanes and shoulders and intermittent turning and passing lanes. That project is now under development. Another project has received initial approval to upgrade the highway to four lanes from the North Dakota border to Culbertson. Sivertsen said he hopes that supporters of widening the highway will show up in force to attend the signing Friday. “You might say that the Highway 2 Association would like to see a good delegation there,” he said. “It's really a plus for the Highway 2 corridor.”