By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Four lane roads within the City of Glendive will soon be, for the most part, a thing of the past.
The Glendive City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a proposal by the Montana Department of Transportation to reconfigure Merrill Avenue from a four-lane street to a three-lane street.
The vote came quietly, with no further discussion by the council. No members of the public made any comment either for or against the proposal.
With the city’s acceptance of the proposal, both of Glendive’s major four-lane streets are slated for reconfiguration from four lanes to three. The council already approved last year a proposal to reconfigure Towne Street to three lanes from the bridge to its intersection with Merrill.
The Towne Street project is currently slated for 2019 and will be tied in with the reconstruction of North Meade Avenue, according to MDT District 4 Administrator Shane Mintz. As for when the Merrill project can expect to get underway, Mintz said “there’s so many variables” that he can’t give a concrete estimate.
“I haven’t given (the city) an exact date, and I can’t,” he said.
Mintz added that his best guess is that the project will be done within five to seven years. He said the plan is to tie in the reconfiguration project to “some kind of pavement preservation project,” meaning the street will be getting a fresh pavement overlay as well when the project gets underway.
Once reconfigured, Merrill will have two thru traffic lanes and a center left-turn lane. The street will retain its width, so it will also allow space for bicycle lanes, pedestrian walkways, and more parking space along it. Crosswalks and intersections will also be updated to enhance safety, including a complete reworking of the intersection of Merrill and Douglas.
Mintz pointed out that one of the most attractive features of going to that kind of configuration is the safety aspect, as it provides a safer thoroughfare for all who use it — motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
“From a traffic standpoint, it’s safer, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.
Speaking to some of the grumbling against the proposal he has heard, Mintz said he thinks most of it stems from “a preference thing of what folks are used to.” He said the best suggestion he could give people to assuage their concerns about the proposal would be for them to request a copy of the traffic study MDT performed on Merrill from the city and read through it.
For instance, Mintz said one of the more common arguments made against going to the three-lane configuration — that the traffic volume would be more than it could handle and would slow traffic — is nowhere close to the reality, and the traffic study bears that out.
Mintz also noted that some people have made comparisons to the three-lane configurations which Miles City went to on Haynes Avenue or that Sidney went to with its Main Street. However, he noted that there are “some differences” between those streets and Merrill. Haynes Avenue in Miles City, for instance, averages about 5,000 more vehicles per day than Merrill, and Mintz said that’s still not enough to warrant a four-lane road. He added what can sometimes make traffic on that street seem slow is all the side streets entering from both sides of the road. That wouldn’t be the case with Merrill, he noted, since there are few streets entering it from the railroad tracks side.
The bottom line, Mintz said, is traffic should flow just fine on Merrill in a three-lane configuration, with enhanced safety for all street users.
“In terms of volume, I think Merrill could triple and still function very well as a three lane,” he said. “The volumes aren’t anywhere close to warranting a four lane.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.