A 3-mile section on the north end of KM Ranch Road is one of the biggest road rehabilitation projects Flathead County has on tap for the summer construction season.

Last year the county Road Department refurbished the southern end of the gravel road.

The county had earmarked $2.5 million to pave KM Ranch Road as part of a cost-sharing proposal that would have created a Rural Special Improvement District to pay for paving about 6 miles of the dusty gravel road. The petition from a group of property owners was withdrawn last year, however, amid neighborhood opposition.

While the paving money was allocated to other road projects, the county did keep the gravel upgrade of KM Ranch Road in the road budget.

The county will complete some minor right-of-way clearing on KM Ranch Road in March or April. Pit run material for the job will be asphalt millings currently stored at the county’s shop in Columbia Falls. Last year the county used pit run from a private Nelcon pit.

“We will bid out the 1-inch-minus crushed aggregate with bentonite,” county Public Works Director Dave Prunty said. “We anticipate needing 11,000 tons of crush for the job.”

The road work involves widening and building up the road bed.

Road dust is a chronic problem on the heavily used KM Ranch Road.

“We would love to have the whole 6 miles in the road dust cost-share program,” Prunty said.

The county also will rebuild the south end of Columbia Falls Stage Road where a slide has damaged the road. That project will start once spring rains have stopped, Prunty said.

Another road improvement project involves a 1-mile section of Trumble Creek Road in the area of the county gravel pit. The state Department of Transportation will provide millings from its work on the U.S. 2 and Montana 40 intersection.

The county plans to use the millings to build a hard surface similar to the work done on Holt Stage Road in 2008, Prunty said.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.