Repairs Begin Monday for Erosion on Old Montana Highway 200

The Montana Department of Transportation will begin work repairing erosion damage on Old Montana Highway 200 near Marshall Canyon.

Engineering Project Manager Matthew Straub detailed the repair project that will affect traffic flows between East Missoula and Bonner.

“We are rebuilding the road, that’s about a quarter of a mile of road, between East Missoula and Bonner near Marshall Canyon Road,” said Straub. “There was some heavy spring runoff that caused erosion on the road in 2019 that requires some immediate attention to fix the damage to the roadway and the river bank.”

Straub described the damage to the section of Old Highway 200.

“There’s an existing erosion structure in place that needs to be removed, and we’ll replace it with a more up to date and larger erosion prevention feature,” he said. “Traffic will have to be single lanes throughout the length of the project, but we’ll control the traffic with automated smart signals, but there will be single lane traffic throughout the project area.”

Straub also provided more details about the project.

“We’ll be starting on Monday, July 27^th and it will continue through November of this year,” he said. “The cost on this project will be about $4.3 million dollars and Missouri River Contractors out of Helena will be doing the work. Trying to access the Marshal Canyon Road will be affected and traffic along the frontage road will also be impacted.”

MDOT said repairs must be conducted to preserve the riverbank as well as the roadway.