Rocky Point residents worry about traffic impacts of new casino
The intersection of Rocky Point Road with Highway 93 north of Polson is always busy, especially during the summer months as lakeshore residents struggle to get on and off the highway. It’s likely to get worse with construction vehicles entering and exiting Hwy. 93 from Irvine Flats Road where building has begun on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ new casino, 400 Horses.
A meeting of about 30 citizens concerned about public safety at the intersection met at the Masumola Club off Rocky Point Road on May 15. Jan Smith Kassen, who lives on Rocky Point Road, spearheaded the gathering with help from neighbor Randy Holmes, “who took up the gavel and started researching,” she said.
The group expressed concerns about dump trucks, semis, and cement trucks turning left onto Irvine Flats Road, building up a line of waiting vehicles and stopping traffic coming south on Hwy. 93 while they completed their turn. Those lines of traffic could also make it difficult to turn left on Hwy. 93 from Rocky Point Road as well as turn right onto Rocky Point Road.
Holmes began his research by taking a look at the traffic study done by KLJ Engineering, hired by the CSKT prior to building the casino. A traffic study is required when there is ingress and egress from a state highway.
The copy Holmes studied was on the City of Polson’s website, since the casino development was annexed into the city in 2024 for water and sewer service. It was published last September and updated April 3.
This study only concerns Irvine Flats Road, which turns south off of Hwy. 93 just east of the Rocky Point Road intersection, across from The Shoe restaurant and Shoreline Dr. KLJ Engineering recommendations for what should be done to mitigate the casino’s traffic impact at Irvine Flats Road were to establish two turn lanes on Hwy. 93: a left turn lane onto Irvine Flats Road for northbound traffic, and a right turn lane for southbound traffic. In addition, the report recommended a right turn lane for traffic emerging from Irvine Flats Road, a center lane that could take traffic across to the Shoe or left onto Hwy. 93, and a traffic light at the intersection.
LKJ projected that Phase 1 of the casino would generate about 2,400 cars on weekdays and 3,100 on weekends. The hotel, coming as part of Phase 2, would add another approximately 2,300 vehicles.
A 2023 traffic study by the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) found an average of 8,577 vehicles daily pass Irvine Flats Road and Rocky Point Road on Hwy. 93; it was updated in 2024 to 8,643 cars per day.
“If you take 8,600, add phases 1 and 2, you get right around 14,000 cars a day, about a 64% increase in traffic,” Holmes said during last month’s meeting.
The meeting ended with Smith-Kassen and Holmes asking for help from audience members in doing research and meeting with city, county and tribal officials.
On Monday, Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron said the city and county got together and signed a letter drafted by Polson City Manager Ed Meece requesting a new speed study and an intersection count on the stretch of Hwy. 93 that includes Rocky Point Road and Irvine Flats Road as soon as possible. The letter has been sent to the Montana Department of Transportation, Barron said.
The Lake County Commissioners met with local legislators and with the City of Polson during separate meetings on Tuesday, and both Barron and Smith –Kassen said the issue will be brought up at both meetings.
At a meeting with Bob Vosen, head of MDT's Missoula District, held April 7, county commissioners were told that improvements in those intersections aren't in the current budget.
Smith-Kasson, who attended that meeting as well, asked Vosen if he had safety concerns about Rocky Point Road.
“Of course, I have safety concerns,” Vosen said. “I have 30 intersections on my white board at work. I've got a little bit of money and a whole lot of problems.”
MDT uses a benefit cost analysis, Vosen said at the time, and so far, there is not a crash trend at the Rocky Point Road intersection. There are “many, many intersections on Hwy. 93 with higher traffic” so MDT has to be judicious, he said. He predicted that during Phase 1 of 400 Horses Casino, "the traffic won’t be such that it will require intersection improvement."