The US 93 corridor between Missoula and Florence serves as a vital access route for adjacent residences, businesses, agricultural lands, and commuters traveling between smaller Bitterroot Valley communities and the City of Missoula, while also accommodating significant commercial freight traffic. This growth has resulted in safety concerns, user conflicts, increased traffic congestion, and longer travel times.

The study conducted wide-ranging analyses of the physical roadway, safety, traffic operations, and environmental features to establish baseline conditions for the corridor. This step was important to understand key issues, needs, and constraints influencing future improvements.

To address these issues, the study identified and evaluated a range of potential options to improve safety and traffic flow on US 93 while enabling feasible implementation and minimizing impacts to adjacent landowners, the environment, and the traveling public. This effort attempted to best address the primary areas of concern identified through public and stakeholder outreach, discussions with the MDT study team, review of past and current planning documents, and technical analysis of physical features, traffic, safety, and environmental conditions while also meeting the purpose and need of the highway. A sequential approach was used to identify, screen, and select the preferred corridor configuration with continuous public feedback integrated into the process.

An optimized corridor configuration was identified, integrating the most practical and effective elements from corridor concepts and intersection control alternatives. This process involved strategically blending design alternatives that were found to best meet the study’s goals and objectives. The aim was to develop a comprehensive and feasible recommendation for the corridor that balances the overwhelming need for improved safety with efficient highway operations, while minimizing implementation costs, construction timeframes, and impacts.