Letter to the Editor: MDOT Highway Safety Concerns
Author: Al and Cindy Christopherson
MDOT Highway Safety Concerns
Public comment letter
Broadwater County Commissioners meeting 11-7-2023
Agenda topic: MDOT highways and bridges
Dear Commissioners and MDOT representatives:
We cannot attend the meeting in person so we are submitting our personal comments via this letter.
We live in the Silos neighborhood, residing there since 2006. We have witnessed the significant increase in vehicle traffic and associated safety concerns issues for neighbors, community, businesses, tourism and recreational use on the section of Highway 287/12 from Townsend over the Missouri River Bridge and past the Silos Road junction. Several lives have been lost on this section of highway during this time.
We understand there are plans/discussions of plans for further upgrades to 4-5 lanes with middle turn lanes from the bridge to the end of the current 4 lane. We ask that you consider the following improvements, changes and some creative design thinking for this segment of highway. These include and not in any priority way the following:
• Design of an 8-foot shoulder on the side of the highway where traffic travels at 80 mph does not constitute safe transit for walkers or bicyclists
• The high amount of ingress and egress access points along this 8-mile stretch of highway is an incredible safety hazard,
• Consider designing a frontage road, especially along the west side of the highway to a single or couple of highway access points,
• Consider, as a safety lifesaving feature, designing in safety corridor pedestrian and bicycle trails from Townsend to the Silos Road that keep people off the freeway type highway,
• Consider, as a safety lifesaving feature, development of speed up and slow down lanes at all major junctions to allow for the merging of large commercial and recreational vehicle we see on this section of high-speed road, i.e., Silos Road, Antelope, Whitehorse, Trailhead, Grandview Loop, Indian Creek Rd.
• Consider designing a route that all the 4-wheeler, ATV, UTV vehicles can travel safely from the Silos Road into Townsend as they are not high-speed vehicles and become a real safety element on the high-speed highway, 4-5 lanes will not solve that problem,
• Consider designing and constructing of two underpasses that will allow pedestrians and bicyclists to cross to either side of the highway at the Silos junction and somewhere near the Mansion that will allow users to safely stay with trails and not have to physically try to cross 4-5 lanes of high-speed traffic and get from the developing neighborhoods and Silos Recreation Area to Townsend,
• Provide an acceptable to MDOT a design plan for a cantilevered pedestrian walkway/trail attached to the Missouri River highway bridge,
• Consider speed reductions from Hahn Road to Townsend that significantly and successfully slows traffic down,
• Provide a department liaison to work closely with Townsend and the Broadwater County Commissioners on partnership development, funding programs and safety trails.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Al and Cindy Christophersen
