Mountains of dirt and rock are being dug and piled and graded at both ends of Kalispell’s south-half U.S. 93 Alternate Route.

Despite the mess, those piles are the first visible signs that travelers should be driving on fresh pavement by Thanksgiving this year.

If construction by Ames Construction and Knife River goes as planned, the first traffic could be using the new route as early as the second week of October. Depending on weather over the next eight months, even the landscaping could be well under way by that time. Chip-sealing happens in 2011.

The digging going on now is crucial to the success of the project timeline, Ed Toavs, Department of Transportation district construction engineer, said Monday.

Work on the south half of the alternate route is broken into two projects. Ames Construction of Utah is building the $13.6 million north-end portion between U.S. 2 West and Airport Road. Knife River Kalispell is building the $9 million south-end stretch from Airport Road to U.S. 93 South.

At the north end, along Appleway Drive and south of the Ashley Square office complex on U.S. 2, it’s a wetland area and former timber mill site. Sawdust, wood chips and debris have sunk in over the years, leaving behind soils that are too spongy for a solid roadbed.

At the junction of Cemetery Road and Airport Road on the route’s south end, Ashley Creek’s winding path makes for soggy soil that needs to be fortified before the bridge spanning the creek can be built.

So Ames and Knife River are building systems to wick underground water — reaching 50 feet down into the soils at the Ashley Creek bridge site — up to a surface web of materials that will drain it away from the bridge and road foundations.

As the area dries out, more rock and soil will be buried there until the ground is stabilized enough to support the new bypass structures.

Ultimately the bypass junction with U.S. 2 will get a major redesign, rerouting Corporate Drive and Appleway and widening U.S. 2 as far as the bottom of Hartt Hill to the west.

That third leg of the south-half bypass project — widening U.S. 2 to include a turn lane and ultimately installing a signal at the intersection with the bypass — is scheduled for a May 20 bid letting, Montana Transportation Director Jim Lynch said.

Lynch also pointed out that a roundabout at the proposed Siderius Commons will provide that mixed-use development access to the bypass. A bike path that will run the length of the alternate route will continue to the west and south of Siderius Commons and connect with the Somers bike path.

Other features of the south half between U.S. 93 and U.S. 2 include a sound barrier along the Ashley Park subdivision; single-lane roundabouts at Airport Road and Foy’s Lake Road; a pedestrian underpass at Valley View Drive and an off ramp at Sunnyside Drive; displacement of the Bowser Creek wetland area near Appleway Drive to another spot chosen and developed by Fish, Wildlife and Parks; and an underpass for the bike path near Ashley Creek at the north end, with a gravel parking area near Flathead Beverage.

When money becomes available for the north half of the U.S. 93 Alternate Route, the remainder of the bypass will be built from U.S. 2 to West Reserve Drive.

Design work for that project is nearly complete, and the lion’s share of right-of-way has been bought for the projected route.

Jean Crow of the highway department’s Missoula district office said negotiations still are under way on 24 out of the 133 parcels for the stretch between U.S. 2 and West Reserve Drive.

Another segment is the eastward extension of Reserve Loop, or what’s being called Reserve Drive South. Half of the 16 parcels needed for that road’s right-of-way still are being negotiated.

Reserve Loop was built in 2007 between Stillwater Road and U.S. 93; it runs past Glacier High School and Kalispell’s Fire Station 62.

Developers already have continued that road’s path into Hutton Ranch Plaza and the city planning office said Wal-Mart intends to finish building the road past its new Supercenter that is set to open in June.

Reserve Drive South then will loop to the east and north, connecting with West Reserve Drive on the west side of the Stillwater River behind Home Depot.

The highway department set aside $2.63 million for those remaining acquisitions — $1.97 million for the 24 remaining parcels on the north bypass route and $660,000 along Reserve Drive South.

The entire stretch of the alternate route will be built initially as a two-lane roadway and then could be widened to four lanes in the future as funding becomes available.

On the Web:

www.kalispellbypass.com