US-2 Road Condition in Montana

JKJavelin wrote:
Last July we took US 2 from Wisconsin to Shelby, Montana. It was fine, EXCEPT a little east of Shelby was major construction for about 10 miles. Down to dirt. I imagine they've made a lot of progress since then, but I have no idea. Nor do I know if they started another section.
JK

We did the same last year, Wisconsin to Alaska. The construction on Hwy 2 is a bit inconvenient. Wait till you get near and into Alaska if you want to complain about roads and construction.

OK folks, we're in Alaska and follows the best road report I can give on US-2:

We hit US-2 in Montana westbound on 5/23. At the border with North Dakota it was 2 lane with no construction. About 10 miles east of Culbertson, MT, they appear to be starting to widen the road to 4 lanes. A lot of construction equipment and one way traffic and about the slowest pilot car operation AND manual traffic lights I've ever seen to get you through the construction. Three lights and it took about 10 minutes waiting at each light for a very short construction stretch. In those areas where the road was NOT under construction, it seems to be deteriorating badly. You get a good bouncing at each road joint and longitudinal joints are breaking up. We spent the night at the rest area in Culbertson and saw very little truck and car traffic on US-2 in either direction.

Based on what we saw and the latest very old information from MDOT on the construction east of Shelby, MT, We elected to leave US-2 and head north into Canada, crossing just north of Culbertson. The road to the border was very much better than US-2, and Saskatchewan roads to Regina and beyond were excellent, albeit 2 lane. I'd guess Montana is just starting the process of making US-2 into 4 lanes, but they don't appear to be keeping up the old sections until the new is done. We've traveled this road for 9 trips to Alaska and are severely disappointed in the road's current condition, and in their reconstruction process. We dealt with similar issues in North Dakota when they widened US-2, and although the construction sections were slowing you down, they were nowhere as disruptive as the Montana process we saw last year and this. We will probably not travel US-2 in Montana for the next 3-4 years unless Montana changes their ways and we get much better travel reports.

It's that 10 mile dirt section that's the OP's worry. According to comments last year they seemed to making no progress. And MT DOT still lists it as requiring a pilot car.

Last July we took US 2 from Wisconsin to Shelby, Montana. It was fine, EXCEPT a little east of Shelby was major construction for about 10 miles. Down to dirt. I imagine they've made a lot of progress since then, but I have no idea. Nor do I know if they started another section.
JK

You could inquire in Havre when you get there. If they warn against it, take 232 NW to White Horse and AB41. There's nothing wrong with doing a bit of sightseeing in the Cypress Hills. It's one of the few bits of forest green east of the Rockies in this part of the Plains.

Aw, come on folks.... No body's traveled US-2 east of Shelby, MT for a road report??? Please?

I subscribed to this post. July were taking us2 from Kalispell to mackinaw.