Construction ahead of schedule

The reconstruction of a portion of State Highway 191 between Malta and Whitewater is near completion and ahead of schedule.

“Technically we have to chip it next year,” said Squeak Tihista, Project Manager from the Montana Department of Transportation. “But it was actually a two-year job. There is still some stuff to do, but it is coming along nicely. It’s been going along very nicely. Aside from a little rain here and there slowing us down, it has been good.”

The project started in March of this year and as of last week, the final bits of construction were coming to an end on the nearly $13.3 million project. As for the construction for this season, Scott Suda, Project Manager from Century Companies Inc., out of Lewistown, said that the crews on 191 should be wrapping up in Phillips County between the last week of October or early November.

"All the dirt should be done by the end of this week,” Suda said last Wednesday.

Phillips County Commissioner Richard Dunbar said that in 1997 the stretch of road between Malta and the Canadian Border was converted from a secondary county road and turned over to the State of Montana. Shortly after the transition, the stretch of road being worked on this summer has been designated for repairs and was placed on the priority list in 1999. The road work covers 11.5 miles on 191 and there are several different outfits helping to get the work done.

“Wickens is doing a super good job,” Tihista said. “They are cleaning up as they go down and the job looks nice. Century is doing very well, an excellent job, and Precision (Highway Contractors out of Billings) Traffic Control is very nice and making it easy to get through our cluster. I’d like to also give a special thanks to all of our Glasgow construction crew that has worked on the project and Lennie Hulford from Miles City Construction.”

Tihista said he knows that construction can be a headache for commuters and thanked everyone who has been patient and accepting.

“We basically want to apologize to anybody if we inconvenienced them,” said Tihista. “But when it comes to a total reconstruct, you can’t help it, basically. We thank everybody for their patience.”

As for working in Phillips County, Paul Burnham Superintendent at Wickens Construction, said everyone he has talked to from the various crews on the project has enjoyed their stay in the area…especially Burnham.

“There is some great fishing out here,” Burnham said, adding that he caught his fair share of catfish and bass during his time in Phillips County. “It is just a perfect location and has been a pleasure to be here.”

All the pavement ripped up during the project was ground up and re-used as a bed for the new pavement, dirt from local land owners was purchased and also used under the new highway and all the land dug up is to be reseeded. Reeverts Fencing, from Scobey, came to the area when the project got underway and tore down the old fencing on land adjacent to the highway. Since then, nearly 22 miles of new fencing has been built along the route.

All told, after next years chip sealing, the new road should last about 20-to-30 years before needing to be redone, according to Tihista.

“We will finish the fences, chip-seal it and re-stripe it and we should be done,” he said of one of the largest road refurbishments in the State of Montana this year.

Commissioner Dunbar gave a conservative guess of about 50 people who worked on the project – including several from Phillips County.