BOZEMAN — The public works director with the City of Bozeman says the Kagy Boulevard Informational Session on Tuesday evening is a refresher for commissioners and the public on plans for an increasingly crowded road.
“Well, the general purpose of the project is to relieve congestion and to improve bike and pedestrian facilities,” said public works director Mitch Reister.
“So the congestion on the main Kagy route itself as well as the intersections.”
Right now, Kagy Boulevard has between 2-3 lanes.
On Tuesday evening, city staff will present a preliminary planning outline that includes widening Kagy to 4 lanes, adding separate bike and pedestrian pathways for both sides of the road and multi-lane roundabouts at major intersections.
The city says this is not a final design, and construction would be a few years out.
The stretch of road is from the intersection of 19th and Kagy to Willson and South 3rd Ave.
Reister says the conversation about expanding Kagy has been going on for decades.
“This has been in the transportation plan really since the late ’50s to have this be the dominant east-west arterial in the south part of town,” said Reister.
Opponents of the expansion have said there should be more emphasis on increasing bike and pedestrian pathways, as well as improving public transit to reduce congestion.
“We really need to have multi-lane facilities so that buses can get in and out of traffic. If we don’t have those multi-lane facilities it makes it that much more challenging to have transit that’s functional,” said Reister.
The current project is estimated to be around $17 million.
Federal funding will pick up most of the bill, leaving the city with around $4 million as their share.
You can participate in the informational session Tuesday evening during the Bozeman City Commission meeting.
