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Vol. 18, No. 48
August 17, 2022
RAISE grant to rebuild county roads By Kristi Niemeyer for the Valley Journal
Ultra marathon pg. 14
Grand opening pg. 16
Car show pg. 17
LAKE COUNTY — Officials learned last week that Lake County will receive nearly $13 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to fully rebuild three critical stretches of road over the next few years. The $12.9 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant – one of four awarded statewide – will finance rebuilding and paving projects on Dublin Gulch Rd., a short section of Moiese Valley Rd. and North Reservoir Rd., which will also get a bike/pedestrian lane. All three roads provide important links to state highways, offer alternative routes during traffic disruption along the Hwy. 93 corridor, and are essential for ferrying commercial and agricultural products and services. Lake County road supervisor Jay Garrick calls the grant “a boon for everybody that has to use those roads and a huge win for the county. It’ll save us tens of thousands of dollars annually in just maintenance costs on those roads.” The county’s grant manager, Billie Lee, who authored and will oversee the grant, also wrote the $10 million TIGER grant nearly a decade ago that rebuilt Skyline
KRISTI NIEMEYER PHOTO
A 1.36-mile stretch of Moiese Valley Road beginning at its intersection with Hwy. 212 is slated for new culverts and reconstruction due to frequent flooding.
Drive, with an adjacent walking/ bike path. This time around, she says, the focus was on connectivity. The Mission Valley has a dearth of paved roads connecting its two major north-south thoroughfares, Highways 93 and 212, which bring commerce, supplies and tourists to and through the county. “This valley is unique because Hwy. 93 is the only route between Missoula and Kalispell,” says Lee. If that corridor is blocked due to w w w.va l le yj our na l.net
road construction or a major accident, there are few ways to reroute traffic, especially semi-trucks that can’t easily navigate gravel roads with sharp turns along section lines. Commerce, tourism and local travel are all vulnerable to such disruptions. According to the grant application, the roads that will be rebuilt and paved are considered “primary connectors that transport goods and services within, to and from
the area, as well as transporting people to work, school and communities and are critical to supporting the basic economies of the county and Flathead Reservation.” Like many roads in Lake County, these three were originally built on layers of native soil, covered with gravel, and eventually chip sealed due to high use. The value of Dublin Gulch Rd. as an east-west connector was uncomfortably apparent in 2019, when the road through the gulch was washed out and closed for eight months, forcing those who regularly use the route to cut between Hwy. 212 and U.S. 93 to take cumbersome detours. In his letter of support for the project, Jerome Stenberg of Stone Mountain Builders, whose business and family’s ranch are located on Dublin Gulch, says the narrow, uneven road surface is “not just dangerous, but extremely dangerous.” Amy Vaughan, whose family also lives on Dublin Gulch, says there have been two traffic fatalities and four vehicles have landed in the ditch in front of her house. “As a primary access point to the west side of the Mission Valley and the town of Charlo, Dublin Gulch sees a wide variety of traffic for such a narrow, uneven paved road,” she writes. “On any given
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