With the Kalispell City Council’s approval, work should start soon on a new stretch of bike path along U.S. 93.

This first phase of concrete path will run along the highway’s east side a short distance from North Meridian Road to Sunnyview Lane. Council members on Monday awarded an $82,964 contract to LHC for the work.

“We could see work getting done in a two- to three-week window,” Mike Baker, director of Kalispell Parks and Recreation, said about the project’s anticipated starting date.

A second phase would extend the bike path from Sunnyview Lane south to West Wyoming Street. A third phase would extend north from Meridian Road to the Kidsports youth athletic complex and Flathead Valley Community College, where it could tie in to other existing trails that run along U.S. 93 in front of the college and north Kalispell shopping centers.

Baker said Kalispell Parks and Recreation is applying for more grant money in September to try to complete that second phase of the bike path next year. Grant money is paying for all but about $5,600 of the project’s first phase.

The goal is to give people a safer place to walk and ride bikes than a heavily traveled dirt path worn into grass along the side of the highway.

“This path along 93 has a huge safety component with it. I think that’s key,” Baker said.

When the bike path is complete, it will also tie in with other paths that run through Lawrence Park and along Whitefish Stage Road and West Reserve Drive and the sidewalk on North Meridian Road that leads down to the Rails to Trails route to Kila.

KALISPELL ALSO is putting together an application for Safe Routes to Schools grant money to try to build a bike path along Three Mile Drive from North Meridian Road to Springcreek Road. That would serve Kalispell Middle School and neighborhoods to the west, including Empire Estates and Mountain Vista Way subdivisions.

The grant application is due Sept. 6. That project is also expected to have to be split into several phases.

“The problem is Three Mile Drive is so narrow and treacherous. Right now there’s no place to ride or walk, and safety is a big concern,” Baker said. “We anticipate a trail of that nature would have lots of use.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.