EAST HELENA — When you’re driving through East Helena, it might seem like every road falls under the same jurisdiction, but that’s not the case. Some roads are city streets, while others are maintained by the county or Montana Department of Transportation.
VIDEO: City street or county road? Find out who maintains East Helena's roads and what projects are on the way
“The folks that live on those roads know the roads best,” Jessica Makus, Lewis and Clark County special districts coordinator, said.
But may not know who to call about a road problem.
For the City of East Helena, road maintenance is funded in part through gas tax revenue. The city receives about $120,000 a year in gas taxes to help pay for road work.
Over the past four years, the city says it has resurfaced 19 blocks of road, chip sealed 28 blocks, and completely replaced infrastructure on two blocks.
But city crews aren’t responsible for every road in East Helena. County roads and rural improvement districts, which are often the streets in subdivisions, fall under Lewis and Clark County and are funded by property tax assessment and the road mill levy.
“The county hard surface roads are on schedules for pavement preservation, so that includes chip seals, crack seals, scrub seals, and annual road striping,” Kevin Horne, Lewis and Clark County public works operations manager, said. “There are some roads within the East Helena corridor that are still gravel surfaced, so that is funded for road grading and dust abatement.”
A county project is currently in the engineering phase near Eastgate School and Lewis Street that includes new ADA accessible sidewalks and access to Boundary and Remington.
Routes like Highway 12, 518, Main Street, and Lane Avenue are maintained by MDT and frequently focus on pavement preservation.
“Safety, always the safety of the traveling public, and there are many different issues that can pop up and things that are just annoyances, and we get to it all as fast as we can,” Chris Sturges, MDT’s Helena maintenance section supervisor, said.
MDT also has a project in the works. Starting near the junction of 518 and extending to the intersection of Diehl Ranch Drive, crews will be preserving pavement and widening the road.
“We are going to be adding some auxiliary lanes and turn lanes at various locations with that particular project,” James Combs, MDT’s Great Falls district project development engineer, said.
Whether it’s a city street, county road, or state route, the goal is the same: keeping East Helena’s roads safe for the people who use them every day.
