Troy road work under way
Noble Excavating began cutting this week into the hillside above the county road across the river from the City of Troy. The project is designed to widen the road into two lanes.
Work began this week on a project to widen the county road on the north side of the Roosevelt Bridge over the Kootenai River in Troy.
The project was initially scheduled to start last month but was delayed by surveying issues, said Lincoln County Commissioner John Konzen.
Plans to remove material from an adjacent rock wall to widen the driving surface of the road have been in the works for the past decade or more. The road is currently too narrow to allow two cars to pass.
The project is scheduled to be completed within 120 days.
"They're hoping it's much sooner than that," Konzen said.
The project involves the removal of 20,000 cubic yards of material, which will be transported to a nearby washout area, and adding 10 feet to the road's width along with another 10 feet in a rock catch basin, Konzen said.
During construction, the road will be closed from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Area residents will be able to use an alternate route over the O'Brien Loop. That road will be maintained by the county for winter use.
The plan is to complete the upriver portion of the project first to minimize impacts to residents, Konzen said.
Noble Excavating of Libby is the contractor for the project. Noble's base bid of $161,000 was significantly less than the bids submitted by two other contractors vying for the job, Konzen said. The engineer's estimate for the project was $220,000.