Fourth Avenue should be paved before school starts
CHRIS PETERSON | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 55 minutes AGO
Fourth Avenue West construction earlier this summer.
Chris Peterson is the editor of the Hungry Horse News. He covers Columbia Falls, the Canyon, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. All told, about 4 million acres of the best parts of the planet. He can be reached at [email protected] or 406-892-2151. | August 12, 2026 7:30 AM
A project to rebuild Fourth Avenue West and Seventh Street West is about a month ahead of schedule, city manager Eric Hanks told council last week.
Formally called the Gateway to Glacier Safety and Mobility Improvement Project, the project not only rebuilds the streets and sidewalks to modern standards, it replaces the water lines as well.
Hanks said contrary to a social media post, water outages to homes and businesses were 5 to 30 minutes long. The person who had a longer outage was due to a different project. The city did find that four service lines to homes were leaking. Service lines are the responsibility of the homeowner.
“They’ll have everything paved and likely landscaped before school starts,” Hanks told council.
The next phase of the project, which will start in 2027, is to rebuild 13th Street West for its full length. Work won’t start in front of the high school until after school is out.
Nelcon Inc. of Columbia Falls was awarded a $9.4 million bid for the project, which is primarily funded by a $10.2 million federal RAISE grant.
The city has also contributed about $1 million toward the project as well, primarily through its Tax Increment Financing district.
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