US-2 Road Condition in Montana
OK folks, it's time. We leave Saturday for Alaska (9th trip) and if anyone has a report on US-2 condition just east of Shelby, Montana, I'd appreciate your comments. Last year going north to AK US-2 w...
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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.
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.
