While a Montana Department of Transportation official said Wednesday the project “potentially” could be completed this season, city officials said they must wait until 2009 or risk compromising the outcome. Their announcement, though, hasn't stopped some members of the public from calling for a 2008 completion.
“In general, our economy seems so out of control that I think the sooner we do things, the better,” said John Fletcher, who worries about cost increases.
Fletcher, though, was among many people who replied to Ward 3 Councilman Bob Jaffe's listserv (e-mail newsletter) last week and called for fast action. In his e-mail, Fletcher said recent construction at neighboring Mount Avenue has exacerbated the Higgins-Hill-Beckwith intersection.
He said in a simple, four-way intersection, traffic has 12 options. At each point, it can go three ways. But traffic at Higgins-Mount-Evans isn't flowing as freely anymore. With Mount blocked off as part of the rebuild, traffic options there dropped from 12 to seven, he wrote - “a 42 percent reduction in options and access.”
“I like to think that one of the things in mind with the reduction at Higgins-Mount-Evans was the safety of schoolkids walking to Paxson: fewer motorists trying to spurt into or out of Mount during a break in the Higgins traffic,” he wrote. “But we must also recognize that we've significantly increased the load into a still-to-be-reconfigured Higgins-Hill-Beckwith intersection.”
Jaffe said the pall of construction along West Broadway hangs over this project, and the city does not want to end up with a street half built come winter. He said West Broadway was rebuilt late in the fall when, for example, epoxy paint couldn't be put down.
“It was just a disaster for everybody, proponents and opponents. It was just a disaster, and it stayed that way for a good six months. So by that point, everybody hated it, and that's the fear,” Jaffe said.
At the same time, he said he understands the fear that the cost will only increase next year if cement is in short supply. He has asked the city to get a guarantee from the state that a delay won't jeopardize the project.
Jaffe also said the negotiation with the state over sidewalk maintenance added three months to the job and pushed the schedule over the edge.
Public Works project development coordinator Gregg Wood said the time has passed to talk about building this year because the schedule was tight from the get-go.
“We had no room to miss a beat, and we missed a beat,” Wood said.
The decision to delay was tough to make a while back, but every day that passes, it's easier, he said. And he emphasized that the decision is set. He points to right-of-way acquisition as the current stalling point.
Independent contractor and negotiator Bryan Flaherty is doing that work, and he said the timeline was short from the start. Negotiating right-of-way acquisition isn't something that can be rushed because pushing people too hard irritates them and causes more delays in the long run, he said.
“In right-of-way acquisition, you want to be really fair with property owners,” Flaherty said.
In this case, they've asked for more information, which takes time. But Flaherty said he started the work just 45 days earlier and some acquisitions can take six months.
“It just takes a little while to make it all work. From my right-of-way experience, I think we're probably ahead of what it normally takes,” he said.
He said he expects the deal to be tied up shortly but wouldn't venture a guess as to when that might be.
Montana Department of Transportation district Administrator Dwane Kailey said construction could “potentially” be completed this season if securing right-of-way happens lickety-split, but there are other considerations.
“I guess the better question is, is it something we want to do? Is it something the city wants to do?” he said.
The schedule goes roughly along these lines, according to the city and MDT: First of all, the negotiator secures property. Then, the the city shoots some documents to the MDT, which sends them to the Federal Highway Association for approval.
Kailey said that step doesn't take a lot of time but it depends on the association's workload. Then, MDT does a comb-through of the plan - “It doesn't take months, but it does take some time,” Kailey said.
If it finds errors, it must correct the errors. Then, it advertises the project for at least two weeks, he said. He said awarding the project takes one to two weeks but can be expedited in some cases.
Kailey said the advertising and internal review can't happen simultaneously because contractors need to know what they're bidding on or they get upset. A contractor can put more people on the project, but Kailey also said that could cause price hikes this year if a crew has to clock in overtime or if the company has to delay another project to finish this one.
And it isn't yet clear exactly how long construction is expected to take, but it's too close to winter for comfort as far as Wood is concerned. He said even starting in late September could be problematic.
“It's just not prudent to start this late in the season,” Wood said.
Some supporters of the rebuild just want to make sure it happens next season if not this one. Neighbor Caitlin Copple said it's good to build on momentum and she doesn't want the project to die.
“It would be nice to have it sooner rather than later, but certainly I don't want to put any kids in the neighborhood in danger,” Copple said.
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