Chamber approves board of directors

SUPERIOR – On Friday, March 21, the Mineral County Commissioners were notified of upcoming projects along Interstate 90 and voted on a safety committee proposal.

One of the projects mentioned by representatives of the Montana Department of Transportation was the rehabilitation of the Clark Fork Bridge in Superior. The bridge is below River Bend, near mile markers 53 and 54. According to Ben Nunnallee, DOT district project engineer, the bearings on the bridge have begun to seize up and cause damage to the bridge’s structure.

“We need to get in there and get at that bridge pretty quickly,” Nunnallee said.

The project would require lifting the bridge and replacing the bearings. DOT would also remove any rust on the structure and put a fresh coat of paint on it. This would prevent any more damage and refresh the look.

Nunnallee said this is a design-built project. The project has been given to a contractor to manage with a DOT designer’s input. The team has complete control of the design within DOT’s guidelines. He said the design team was working on the project and it would be reviewed soon. Construction is expected to begin in late April and take most of the year to complete.

“So, finishing probably late August,” Nunnallee said. “We’ll see how construction goes, but that’s the current schedule.”

DOT also has multiple projects involving the bridges along Interstate 90. Nunnallee said these range from patching holes to completely replacing the decks. The project is just getting started and which bridges will be worked on has not been decided. Once DOT knows which bridges will be included and what kind of work they will need, a budget with a schedule for the project will be created.

Another project will add ‘wrong way’ signs to different interchanges along I-90.

“This has been identified as a safety concern all across the state,” Nunnallee said. “This project is a district-wide signing project.”

This means the project will cover interchanges across the whole district. While he said it was possible the project would start in another county, all the interchanges in the area would be taken care of before it was finished.

DOT also addressed projects along Highway 135. Nunnallee said the maintenance crews would work to fill some of the chips in the road this summer. The project would go from the edge of St. Regis northeast to approximately mile marker 10 over the county line. DOT hopes to completely redo Highway 135 sometime soon. The project would likely happen in phases over a period of time.

Moving out to the west end of the county, DOT wants to add a radar to help manage the speed of heavier vehicles out in areas with lots of turns. According to Nunnallee, the system will detect the vehicle’s speed and send them a message to reduce their speed. The system is expected to identify vehicles by size and know not to flash the message for smaller vehicles.

The group also discussed some of the commissioner’s concerns about the roads and their maintenance. These included doing repairs on the drive from Superior to Tarkio on Old Highway 10, repairs to the Old Cyr Bridge, snow plowing in the area and maintenance to Mullan Road West. DOT plans to look into some of these projects and see what can be done. The representatives said they have no plans to repair the Cyr Bridge at this time.

At another point in the meeting Kasey Feasel and Kelann McLees, the chairman as well as a member of the safety committee, brought a proposal for the commissioners to approve. The proposal would adopt a new safety program for the county. This is something the area does not currently have, but is recommended.

According to McLees, the group would meet quarterly. If any accidents occur, they would begin an investigation into what happened. They plan to look into possible safety hazards if an area were reported as a risk.

The group would also receive checks to fund the various meetings and expenses as needed. McLees felt bonuses could also be given as incentives for keeping areas safe.

“You can give the employees $50 a year,” said Feasel. “Good job, not having a claim.”

The commissioners liked the idea of the program and unanimously agreed to approve it.