Kalispell’s plan to build Four Mile Drive with its yearly allocations of federal urban highway money hit a roadblock in July when the Montana Transportation Commission refused to sign off on the project.

The estimated $3.1 million project would extend Four Mile Drive half a mile west to Stillwater Road with a 20-foot-tall bridge over the planned route of the Kalispell bypass. The bypass would connect to the bridge with an interchange when it is built through that area.

Because the section of Four Mile Drive does not exist, it has to be added to Kalispell’s urban highway system, a step the Montana Transportation Commission must approve. The road must then be built within six years.

The transportation commission’s five members — one representing each transportation district in Montana — took no action on Kalispell’s request rather than vote it down or table it at their July 25 meeting.

Commission Chairman Kevin Howlett said he has some concerns about the Four Mile Drive project and the U.S. 93 bypass. A resident of Arlee and director of the Department of Health and Human Services for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Howlett represents District One that covers Northwest Montana.

“We want to as a commission really begin to understand a lot more about the Kalispell bypass. Not just the bypass, but the priorities of the district,” Howlett said, suggesting that commission members should take more of a leading role in setting transportation priorities.

Howlett did not return phone calls seeking additional comment on his position. A co-worker said Howlett told her to say he would not talk with any newspapers until he meets with Montana Department of Transportation officials and the tribal council.

The transportation commission’s initial refusal to support the Four Mile Drive extension caught Kalispell officials completely off guard, Planning Director Tom Jentz said.

“City staff looked at it as a very routine request and didn’t even attend the meeting,” Jentz said. “We were totally surprised by what happened, that it was even an issue of discussion.”

Kalispell, Flathead County and Montana Department of Transportation officials will hold a Transportation Advisory Committee meeting to try to regroup before the Montana Transportation Commission meets on Sept. 26.

The Transportation Advisory Committee in March picked Four Mile Drive as Kalispell’s next federal urban highway project.

“We’re asking MDT staff to provide us with updated information on the need for the Four Mile Drive extension, reaffirming that as our number one priority and getting information together on why that is a priority,” Jentz said. “We do need [the commission’s] support, so we’ll want to come in solidified to demonstrate that this is not one man’s project or one man’s show, but a solid community need.”

Kalispell picked Four Mile Drive in an effort to complete an important road project in two to three years. Other eligible projects in Kalispell’s transportation plan — such as rebuilding Whitefish Stage Road, West Reserve Drive or Willow Glen or building the Grandview Extension — would cost millions of dollars more and take much longer to save up money for.

Kalispell accumulates just $600,000 in federal urban highway money each year and has completed two projects with the money in the last 30 years: A reconstruction of North Meridian Road in 2006 and a reconstruction of Main Street in 1983.

The city had about $1.2 million saved up in March and has talked with the nonprofit group Kidsports about raising money to help build Four Mile Drive in exchange for a $2.1 million permanent easement the city bought for its sports complex on school trust land.

The completed Four Mile Drive would run from U.S. 93 west to Stillwater Road. That opens a new east-west connection near the Kidsports youth athletic complex and Flathead Valley Community College in one of the city’s most congested areas.

WITH construction starting on a $6.7 million phase of Kalispell bypass between U.S. 93 and Reserve Loop, Kalispell officials also plan to stress the importance of completing the northern half of the Kalispell bypass and linking that up to the southern half of the bypass that opened in November 2010 and cost about $22.6 million to build.

There is light at the end of the tunnel for a bypass project that has been in the works for decades. Designs are almost complete and the last three properties needed for the bypass should be acquired soon. About 130 parcels of land have been purchased for the route.

Montana Department of Transportation this fall is trying to find enough money to rebuild Three Mile Drive with a bridge over the planned route of the bypass. Completing that project and the Four Mile Drive project would leave just two more sections of roadway needed for a fully functioning bypass: A stretch from U.S. 2 north to Three Mile Drive and a segment from Three Mile Drive north to Reserve Loop.

“We need to reaffirm that as the number one priority for state and federal funding in the Kalispell area,” Jentz said about the bypass and the Montana Transportation Commission’s next meeting.

Ed Toavs, Missoula district administrator for the Montana Department of Transportation, agreed. “My position is that the bypass is a great project. So are projects in Ronan, Bad Rock and Whitefish. They’re all good projects and they’re all worthwhile. It just so happens we have invested a lot in the bypass. It’s a good project and we need to finish it,” he said.

“Having half of a bypass is not as beneficial to the taxpayer as the intent of the whole bypass. It’s a pretty important project and we’ve heard from Kalispell that it’s their bread and butter. It’s almost there and we need to get it there.”

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