A smoky morning along Upper McDonald Creek, Glacier National Park / Rebecca Latson file

Glacier National Park’s public scoping newsletter for the proposal to replace the Upper McDonald Creek Bridge and formalize parking at Upper McDonald Creek Trailhead is available for review and comment on the National Park Service (NPS) Planning, Environment & Public Comment (PEPC) website. The scoping newsletter will be available for 14 days and comments are due August 30, 2022. An in-person public meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 23 at 5 pm at Park Headquarters in the Community Building, 162 Mather Dr., West Glacier, MT.  

The North Lake McDonald Road provides access between Going-to-the-Sun Road and the northwest shore of Lake McDonald including private homes, the Lake McDonald Ranger Station, and access to trailheads. The road crosses Upper McDonald Creek via the Upper McDonald Creek Bridge. Bridge replacement is needed due to progressive failure and to improve vehicle access to the northwest side of the lake. The bridge has suffered damage over time due to flooding and currently has a restricted load capacity of 15 tons, inadequate for heavy loads needed for wildland fire control.

The existing single-lane bridge and its two in-stream piers would be removed and replaced with a single-lane, clear span bridge with two sidewalks, one on each side. The new bridge would be built approximately 30 feet upstream of the existing bridge, requiring a realignment of the road approaches. The existing bridge would continue to be available for NPS and landowner access during construction. The construction area extending approximately 100-feet from Going-to-the-Sun Road to Upper McDonald Creek trailhead would be closed to public access for the duration of construction. Site clearing would likely occur in late summer/early fall of 2022. Construction is anticipated to begin in spring of 2023 and mostly completed by the end of fall 2023.    

Parking for the Upper McDonald Creek Trailhead west of the bridge would also be formalized under this project, likely with 10 delineated head-in parking spaces.  

Replacing the Upper McDonald Creek Bridge with a new bridge slightly offset from the existing location and alignment was approved under a categorical exclusion in May of 2021. However, the submitted construction workplan had greater than anticipated impacts on landowner access. The project has been redesigned to further shift the location of the new bridge to enable administrative and local access across the existing bridge during construction.    

The park believes the redesigned project could still be categorically excluded and would not require the preparation of an environmental assessment (EA). Public scoping is being conducted based on the redesign to determine if there is any other information or additional concerns the park is not aware of that might result in the need for an EA.   

Comments can be posted on the NPS PEPC website or sent by mail to Superintendent, Glacier National Park, Attn: UMC Bridge Replacement, P.O. Box 128, West Glacier, Montana, 59936.