By Michael Somerby EBS STAFF
BIG SKY – In a town where the big sky above feels like the
limit, it’s only natural for developments of all shapes, sizes and purposes to
spring up in virtually every corner of this unincorporated community’s
census-designated boundaries. Intended to help meet the needs of growing
residency and visitation numbers, such operations are reliant on infantry, the
commercial trucks that haul in everything from raw building materials to appliances.
But in a community that has been shaped from scratch by individuals
and organizations alike, there is a disconnect between the peaceful mountain
setting many hope to achieve and the steady stream of trucks that cut through
the heart of the town every day.
According to data collected by the Bozeman office of
Sanderson Stewart, a civil engineering company, 450 heavy trucks head westbound
on Lone Mountain Trail each day. All of these trucks also return eastbound
toward Highway 191, bringing the Lone Mountain Trail truck traffic tally to a
total of 900 individual passes daily.
The data, collected in August 2019, also found 260 of those
450—nearly 60 percent of all heavy trucks entering Big Sky—turn left off Lone
Mountain Trail onto Ousel Falls Road. Considering that each of those trucks then
returns to Lone Mountain Trail via Ousel Falls Road, this means there are 520
individual heavy truck passes each day on Big Sky Town Center’s chief
transportation artery.
Sanderson Stewart-collected data also revealed that only
eight medium or heavy trucks crashed on Lone Mountain Trail between July 1,
2006, and June 20, 2016, out of a total of 182 crashes that involved no
pedestrians; both of those figures are below the statewide crash averages for
similarly classified roadways in both urban and rural settings. Still, Joey
Staszcuk, a project engineer for Sanderson Stewart, spoke anecdotally of unease
he experienced at the corner of Lone Mountain Trail and Ousel Falls Road.
“While the whole safety aspect is a really hard thing to pin
down, we had the signals built at that intersection, and there are just so many
trucks cruising by,” Staszcuk said. “I certainly would not want to be working
construction at that intersection because of speed and volume of truck
traffic.”
According to information from a Town Center Owners
Association newsletter, “Big Sky Town Center’s ‘walking village’ design makes
the neighborhood a unique place to live and work with proximity to dining,
shopping, entertainment, trails, parks, essential services and nature.
Pedestrian-friendly communities offer a better quality of life, higher, more
stable property values, and more opportunities to get to know others in the
community.”
Despite the lack of accidents involving pedestrians, a
truck’s ability to react and stop quickly the way a passenger vehicle might, is
hindered, Staszcuk wrote in an email to EBS. He added that safety concerns are compounded
by the facts that clear visibility of surroundings is diminished in such
vehicles and slower times to gain speed from a point of standstill have a
natural impact on the flow of traffic.
However, through several public-private partnerships
spearheaded by organizations like Big Sky Town Center and the Big Sky Community
Organization, many safety measures such as crossing flags, flashing beacons and
signage denoting maximum speeds have contributed to a safer Big Sky Town Center
experience for pedestrians.
Still, the inability of a commercial truck to quickly gain
speed after coming to a stop will inadvertently contribute Big Sky’s traffic
woes, as the projected annual growth rate for Lone Mountain Trail’s traffic
volume—set forth by the Sanderson Stewart 2017 traffic study that was used in
the application for the more-than $10 million awarded to Big Sky via a federal
TIGER grant—is 4.34 percent. And Staszcuk says the AGR is actually more like 10
percent, according to recent analysis.
A study isolating current traffic conditions on Ousel Falls
Road is underway: In order to arrive at better-informed policy and possible
changes to the way heavy trucks, along with all traffic, interact with Big Sky
Town Center and Ousel Falls Road, the Town Center Owners Association, Big Sky
Community Organization, Spanish Peaks Mountain Club and Yellowstone Club wrote
letters of support for a traffic study to be conducted by Bozeman-based
engineering firm Morrison-Maierle, the manager of a Rural Improvement District (RID)
that maintains Ousel Falls Road on behalf of Gallatin County.
This June, Morrison-Maierle submitted those letters to the
county commissioners of Madison and Gallatin Counties, and is awaiting
tentative approval to use RID dollars to conduct the study.
Less obvious, though, are the dangers to one’s ears.
According to Odyne Systems, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer
of hybrid utility trucks, the average diesel engine found in heavy commercial
trucks produces approximately 100 decibels of noise, which is 10 decibels less
than a chainsaw and 7 decibels less than a power mower, according to a chart
from a Yale University Environmental Health Services study.
Even before the noises of trucks are amplified by the flat,
canyon-like walls of the buildings adjacent to Ousel Falls Road at the
intersection of Town Center Avenue, just 15 minutes of prolonged daily exposure
to 100 decibels can cause damage to the ear resulting in potentially permanent
hearing loss, reports the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association—and
every increase in 3 decibels cuts that safety window’s duration in half.
The effects of the noise have not gone unnoticed by several
members of the business community that are situated along the route.
“We have two beautiful entries to our business,” said
Courtney Collins, gallery director for Creighton Block Gallery. “I just wish we
could have the doors open to be inviting, for people to walk in and get that
foot traffic. But it’s just so loud.”
Bianca Godoy, daughter of Brenda and Alberto Godoy,
co-owners of Alberto’s Mexican Cuisine on Ousel Falls Road, serves and bartends
at her family’s establishment. She says noise complaints from their customers are
not uncommon.
“We get complaints more or less every other day during
lunchtimes in the summer. People complain about the noise, it just disrupts
everything—servers can’t hear and everyone has to speak louder—as it’s
otherwise really quiet outside,” Godoy said. “They always ask if there’s
another road that the trucks can take.”
Frank Kern, the newest owner of Big Sky food service mainstay
The Hungry Moose Market and Deli, has fielded similar complaints, but
acknowledged that there are two sides to the coin.
“You’ll get two types of comments, comments about the noise
of the trucks, and comments about the noise of progress,” Kern said.
As the saying goes, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” and
both privatized and public developments bolster the community’s housing,
recreation and public amenities, attracting people of all walks to add their
DNA and varying backgrounds to the fabric of the growing community.
Additionally, a service or auxiliary route, as mentioned by
Godoy, isn’t necessarily feasible, Staszcuk says.
“The cost of building a temporary road is just not worth it,
especially in a place like Big Sky with the short window for things to be
constructed,” he explained. “And that’s not even considering impacts to things
like interfering with hospital operations, where that access needs to be wide
open.”
Certainly, there was a time in every more-established town
and city around the nation when construction dominated the landscape—to the
benefit of future generations who fortuitously avoided the bustle associated
with major growth. The notion harkens back to a series EBS ran this spring titled
“Growing Pains,” and perhaps recommends an acceptance that not everything will
be perfect in a town on the rise; no pun intended, it’s all part of the ride.
