MISSOULA — Plans to transform Brooks Street into a rapid-transit bus corridor and steer Midtown toward a walkable future woven around housing and services continued to inch forward this week.
Members of the "Transform Brooks-Connect Midtown" study briefed the Missoula City Council on the project's evolving concept, which now stands at 15% design.
While portions of the project are subject to change, the plan has begun taking shape and could be ready for adoption by the end of the year, launching a quest for funding.
“This is a strategy to build the redevelopment in Midtown around a high-quality transit system, great transit access and transit-oriented development,” said Annette Marchesseault, the project manager with the Missoula Redevelopment Agency. “We need to have permeability across Brooks Street to promote that safety for pedestrians, and also the safety for everyone using the roadway.”
With the city's population on the rise and the Midtown district poised for redevelopment, concerns over current and future traffic run high. It's one of the only arterials between the Bitterroot Valley and downtown, and it's poised to become non-functional if solutions aren't found.
The Brooks Street plan looks to address those concerns by providing 15-minute bus service between the downtown transfer station and a new transfer station somewhere near Southgate Mall. But Marchesseault said the transit line aims to provide more than transportation – it also looks to solidify the infrastructure needed to attract and guide transit-oriented development within the Midtown district.
“Assuming there are supportive policies in place, what developers are really looking for is predictability,” she said. “They're looking for permanent stops, high-quality pedestrian crossings and policies to support development at density.”
The study is now several years in the making and has undergone several changes. The concept began as a center-running system but has since shifted to a side-running system.
That would place the bus on the outside lanes, running along the curb with roughly 11 developed stops between the southside transfer center and the downtown station. Marchesseault said the study found the side-running system to be more affordable with simpler operations while meeting the same goals.
“It was clear that a side-running BRT really fit our needs and goals better than center running,” she said. “There would be less property acquisition. It resulted in lower capital costs and greater pedestrian connectivity with the assumption that a pedestrian refuge could be located in the middle of street.”
The side-running concept also calls for a center median and signal control to keep the bus running on schedule, along with policies that support mixed-use and urban-style development along the route.
As it stands, Marchesseault said, Midtown has one of the highest employment densities in the city, though its design remains a relic of the 1960s and 70s.
“Bus rapid-transit or a high-quality transit system increases the ways that people travel to work,” she said. “On Brooks Street today, the traffic service is diminishing and merely failing at some intersections. This is trying to look at another way to reduce some of the traffic and make it more efficient.”
Both the Montana Department of Transportation and Mountain Line are partners in the study, and Mountain Line is expected to bring some funding to the table.
The latter is searching for a place to develop its new administrative base and expand its fleet, and it may place the necessary charging infrastructure for its electric fleet near a new southside transfer station.
“This is not an extensive or long BRT. It's not radical. It's very much a scaled approach,” said Colin Woodrow, the projects and planning specialist with Mountain Line. “There are multiple components and funding opportunities to build the capacity for not only the infrastructure but also the staffing and vehicles required to get there. There's also the land acquisition required for a BRT in Midtown. We need some charging infrastructure adjacent to that.”
The city and Mountain Line received an $850,000 grant four years ago to study the placement of the BRT system on Brooks Street. The project carried a number of requirements including the potential for economic development, complete streets, and making it easier for pedestrians to cross the corridor.
It also considered housing needs within the district and how the presence of a high-frequency transit line could shape future development. As it stands, backers say the current side-running concept meets those goals.
“This isn't only about a bus. It's about transit-oriented development in Midtown. It's about sidewalk amenities and intersection changes,” said Marchesseault. “It's truly a partnership between Mountain Line and the city to bring about a project like this. MDT is a partner at the table with us as well.”
