City Councilor opposes downtown transportation project, citing costs

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) A member of the Missoula City Council on Monday night opposed the weekly list of invoices owed by the city over its inclusion of a payment to DJ&A related to a multi-million transportation project.

The city contracted the engineering firm to lead the Downtown Safety, Access and Mobility project, which looks to transform the transportation grid in Missoula's downtown district.

The city applied for and received a $24 million federal grant in 2023 to fund the work. But rising costs and other factors have slowly chipped away at the scope, forcing planners to reduce a number of project elements.

Ward 4 City Council member Bob Campbell remained opposed to the project on Monday, including a $406,000 invoice owed by the city to DJ&A related to the work.

“This is a bad project for the City of Missoula, and certainly bad for downtown businesses,” Campbell said. “It's costing an enormous amount of tax increment within that (district). We still don't have final costs and what the overage is going to be, but it's certainly in excess of $4 million at this point.”

After receiving the federal grant three years ago, the City Council authorized an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration outlining the project's scope.

At the time, the project's elements reflected the “needs and desires” of various user groups. Over the past two years, the project team has worked to balance those needs against rising costs.

As a result, a number of elements have been eliminated, pared back or deferred until a later time. Still, the project needs an additional $3 million to $5 million to complete the work, city officials have said.

“We had a lot of work to do to reduce our project costs and minimize our impacts to downtown, while also adhering to the grant agreement,” Meagan McMeekin, the city's senior project manager, said in April. “We may need to bring additional money into the project to meet the needs of downtown. We don't truly know where we are with costs until we can bid this out.”

Despite the rising costs and delays, the project still retains support among some and is supposed to begin construction next year. The work will restore Front and Main streets back to two-way travel and optimize more than 20 downtown traffic signals to improve timing and coordination.

Higgins Avenue will also be reduced to two lanes with a dedicated center turn lane from Brooks Street to Broadway. Trail connections to Caras Park are included as well, along with dedicated bike lanes.

“This is our opportunity for an investment in downtown” said McMeekin. “This is our opportunity to make significant upgrades to improve that safety, accessibility and mobility for downtown users.”

Campbell said constituents in his ward don't see the value in the project.

“They overwhelmingly don't see the need for what most people refer to as a Higgins Avenue road diet,” he said.