Missoula’s $800,000 Pedestrian Bridge Slated for Removal Less Than a Decade After Construction

MISSOULA — A pedestrian bridge to West Broadway Island that cost $800,000 to build less than a decade ago is now slated for removal at an estimated cost of $800,000, according to citizen journalist Travis Mateer of ZoomChron.

The final draft of the West Broadway Corridor master plan includes the bridge removal as part of future improvements to the area, Mateer reported Wednesday. The proposal comes six years after Mateer warned readers in 2019 that Missoula was building a “bridge to nowhere” and urged local media to cover the project’s escalating costs.

The Missoula Redevelopment Agency originally estimated the project at $500,000 in Tax Increment Financing in 2019, according to Mateer’s reporting. The final construction cost reached $800,000, a 60% increase from the original estimate.

The bridge project aimed to increase public access to West Broadway Island, city-owned conservation land, according to a February 2019 report by KPAX. The improvements included a new pedestrian bridge to the island, upgrades to a utility bridge at the south end of Burton Street, a pedestrian trail extension and river access improvements.

Original Justification Focused on Crime Reduction

MRA board members justified the project in 2018 as a strategy to address criminal activity on the island by increasing legitimate recreational use, according to reporting from the Missoulian.

“When we talked to [police Chief Mike Brady], he said the police department is absolutely supporting this project,” MRA board member Mike Behan told the Missoulian in December 2018. “For many years, the island has been an area where transients have camped. However, over the past three years there has been a dramatic increase of intravenous drug use and other criminal activity associated with campers on the island.”

“The more people down there, it cleans stuff up to a great extent,” Behan said at the time.

The MRA had been working on the bridge project for five years before securing enough funding to move forward, Behan told the Missoulian. The project was funded through Tax Increment Financing from Urban Renewal District II, with an additional $10,000 contribution from Hellgate Valley Irrigation Company.

2019 Warnings Went Unheeded

In August 2019, Mateer reported hearing the project cost “significantly more” than the $500,000 estimate and that construction delays were not weather-related, despite official explanations.

“It’s this kind of stupid, costly stuff that people in Missoula need to know about and should demand accountability for,” Mateer wrote in his 2019 report. “Out of control spending is not just some conservative talking point, it’s the constant, persistent reality of those who arrogantly disperse OUR money through the unaccountable Missoula Redevelopment Agency.”

Mateer attempted to make public comment on the bridge removal Tuesday at the Climate, Conservation and Parks Committee meeting but was unable to participate. When he called in at 10:12 a.m., the meeting had already moved past public comment, he reported.

“Does the public know its bridge to nowhere is going to be removed?” Mateer wrote in his Tuesday report. “One of my sources told me the line-item on this part of the MASTER plan is $800,000, or, for those keeping score, approximately the SAME AMOUNT it cost this city to built a bridge I warned them about building in the first place.”

The draft West Broadway River Corridor Master Plan confirms the bridge removal as part of a broader $7 million project to restore the Clark Fork River corridor between McCormick Park and the California Street Bridge, according to city documents.

The master plan proposes “widening the side channel and removing the bridges from the mainland to the island” to eliminate terrestrial access to West Broadway Island, establishing “float-in only access” to protect wildlife habitat, according to the plan’s West Broadway Island Habitat Improvement & Protection section.

The bridge removal question has already drawn public criticism. One commenter asked city officials on the Engage Missoula website whether the proposal was “a joke” and questioned the financial responsibility of removing infrastructure the city spent money to build less than a decade ago.

“How much money did the city spend on this project area a few years ago putting in, what the public calls, the ‘bridge to nowhere’?” the commenter wrote. “Now you are proposing spending more of our money to take it out?”

City officials responded that the 2011 bridge project used Tax Increment Financing funds and included retrofitting an existing Hellgate Valley Irrigation Company bridge at Burton Street and installing a new upstream bridge with stairs.

“Prior to public acquisition of the irrigation ditch, the City was required to keep the Burton St. bridge in place to maintain equipment access for ditch maintenance,” city officials wrote in response. “That is no longer the case.”

The master plan’s public comment period runs through Saturday. The Missoula Redevelopment Agency Board and Parks and Recreation Board will review the final draft in early 2026 before making a recommendation to City Council on adoption.