Kalispell Main Street Safety Action Plan to host open house

KALISPELL, Mont. – Kalispell's Main Street Safety Action Plan is moving forward as the project team prepares to host an open house to gather final public input before applying for grants.

The Main Street corridor in downtown Kalispell is a central hub for the community, but it is also prone to car accidents and traffic congestion. The city's safety action plan aims to address these issues.

From 2018 to 2022, there were 2,234 crashes in the Kalispell planning area, with 258 occurring on Main Street.

Joel Boucher, a preconstruction engineer with the Montana Department of Transportation, emphasized the importance of safety improvements. "We're working towards increasing the safety on all of our roads for the general public and making sure we can get people from point A to point B in the safest way possible," he said.

The safety action plan is currently in phase two, focusing on design concepts to make corridor streets safer for all modes of transportation. Proposed changes to Main Street include reducing the road from four lanes to three, with the middle lane dedicated to turns. This reallocated space would provide more room for pedestrians, outdoor seating, and landscaped areas.

Rachel Grosso, a transportation planner at Kittelson & Associates, Inc., explained the benefits of the changes. "Each of the signalized intersections along Main Street will have dedicated left turn lanes. That will not only help to facilitate left turn movements, but there's also a place to safely queue and not block traffic, which will keep those three lanes moving a lot smoother," she said.

Other proposed renovations to other streets include adding separate bike lanes, more visible crosswalks, and light beacons to enhance pedestrian safety.

The project team will host an open house on January 30 at Kalispell City Hall from 5pm-7pm, where locals can learn more about the project and provide feedback.