BILLINGS — Your commute to work Tuesday might have been interrupted if you live on the west side of Billings, or near the Rims.
From 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Zimmerman Trail was closed due to annual maintenance.
About 13,000 cars drive Zimmerman Trail every day. With a collection of falling boulders, spring storms, and heavy traffic, it's one of the most dangerous roads in the city. So, annual maintenance is required to make sure everything is up to code.
"So, every year we try to close Zimmerman Trail down, once. We'll go through and paint the lines, sweep, inspect the roads. We'll see if there's any cracks," says the manager of the city Street Traffic Division, Derick Miller.
By the end of the summer, the city's Department of Public Works aims to maintain the trail after those hefty spring storms. Miller says it's necessary work.
"This road's really hard to do any maintenance on. Unless we shut it down, to keep our employees safe, and also the public," said Miller.
Throughout this construction, Public Works cleans out the storm drain systems, repairs road cracks, cleans debris from the road, and will collect about four yards of fallen rock.
This infamous rock finds itself in the gutters on the side of the trail.
"Well, I don't have any problem living here. I love it," said Cindy Davidson, a Billings resident in the neighborhood.
Cindy and Dave Davidson have lived at the bottom of Zimmerman Trail for about 20 years. They said they don't worry about rocks falling from the Rims.
Back in September of 2019, a large boulder fell from the Rims and crashed through a neighborhood below. This rock activity happens from time to time in Billings.
"It never gets close enough to us. It would never get down here," said Dave Davidson.
Although the city suggests they do everything they can to prevent falling boulders, there's no way to ensure that those rocks are secure.
"Typically, the rocks are pretty stable up there in the area. If we know there's unstable rocks, we'll take care of that in other ways. But, we'll never have the crew working up there under unstable rocks," says Miller.
Miller says the city hires professionals after big storms or significant events to check the Rims for loose rocks.
As for the Davidson family, they aren't letting the fear of loose rocks change their dream home spot.
"No, we love it. When they had the (2019 rock incident), they redid Zimmerman Trail, and they had the trail closed for like, six months. It was awesome," said Dave Davidson.
