MISSOULA – Road construction season is well underway, but residents can look for a pause in the action for a couple of days due to Memorial Day weekend.
Montana Department of Transportation halted construction Friday and will resume finishing projects on Tuesday morning.
The Broadway Avenue ADA project will remove single lane closures for westbound traffic for the weekend.
Russell Street bridge construction stopped Friday afternoon and while all the traffic patterns will remain the same, the hope is that no active construction will help relieve some congestion in the area.
A lot of factors go into this decision including the increase in travelers and the safety of them and construction crews.
“When roads get busy and we are in the way people get frustrated, and we just find it’s better to let the traveling public have a chance to just have the road to themselves,” said MDT engineer John Schmidt. “Memorial Day is one of our most well-traveled holidays here in the state of Montana and we just think it’s a huge benefit to the commuting public to give them a respite from all the construction and it’s good for our crews to get a chance to go home and refresh with their families.”
The Van Buren Street interchange project and the Frenchtown Frontage Road project have relieved their crews and they will start again on Tuesday.
After Memorial Day, Missoula residents can expect some added projects around town, but MDT is going to conduct some of those at night to minimize traffic impacts.
Schmidt said that they appreciate everyone’s patience as the big improvements start to get into final phases this summer.
Connor McCauley – MTN News
