Bozeman Build Report #7

Howdy builders and shakers of Montana and happy second week of April! Spring is attempting to emerge where tulip and dandelion sprouts are starting to show, Bridger Creek Golf Course opened its doors on Monday April 1st, and still some ok skiing to be had. Today in the 7th Edition of the Bozeman Build - we are shining our high beams into the North Loop rail serviced industrial park development, heated housing developments, craigslist kidnapper vans, island ready mix prices, speed limits, and much more.

Enjoy the next 5 minutes of blue collar bs focused on Montana.

Keep the saw sharp,

Daniel

PS. Critical feedback is my love language - please respond with photos, feedback, ideas, or share the cool projects that your working on!

When, what, and who is the Bozeman Build? The BB is a 1x/week free email newsletter delivered every Monday morning focused on mountain West building trades with an emphasis on Montana. The author is Daniel who has a passion for the local building scene, works as a part time contractor, and owns a small construction information business called Block Biome. We appreciate your time!

Table of Contents

• Montana Build Pulse

  • North Loop development

  • Heated housing

  • South Bozeman power outage Friday 04/05

  • Kenyon new POS

  • Hwy 191 roadwork ahead

  • I-90 more like I-65

  • Big Sky home on fire

  • MT DOT invitation for bids due April 25th

  • Urban renovation of the week

  • Craigslist Finds - Bridger condos and Montucky van

• US Wide

  • Construction Dive Top 5

  • Island Concrete Deltas

• Hold my drink commodities

• Blue collar history

  • Reasonable and prudent speeds of Montana

• Weather quotes and work songs

Montana Build Pulse

North Loop development

A new 250-acre rail-served industrial park is now under construction in Bozeman, MT by York Developments of Hattiesburg, MS. They are currently looking for lessees and buyers for a good handful of these sections.

Heated housing

Bozeman residents address (with their knives and pitch forks) city commissioners regarding a new housing development.

The proposed development is the Guthrie which would be a 111-unit, five-story apartment building. Each two-person unit will be 375 to 600 square feet and offer Murphy beds and a hotplate. Fifty percent of the units would be offered as affordable housing at about $1,684 a month proposed location being North Fifth Avenue and Villard Street.

KBZK Bozeman

South Bozeman power outage Friday 04/05

Power went out in parts of South Bozeman affecting 1,823 of Bozeman’s hard working, bill paying, law abiding citizens. A section of Northwest Energies South Bozeman grid went out at appx 3:15am and was repaired at 7:31am.

Kenyon new POS

Kenyon Noble onboarded a new point of sale (POS) software sometime last week (first week of April). Instead of a two page printed copy with the receipt stapled to the front - customers will now receive a one page cash invoice page.

Hwy 191 roadwork ahead

The DOT partnered with Riverside Contracting and CK May Excavating to complete a summer road improvement project planned for Highway 191 (phase 1) North of Gateway and (phase 2) between Storm Castle Road and the Lava Lake Trailhead.

Phase 1 - Turn Bay North of Gallatin Gateway is anticipated in mid-March. Work includes a left-turn bay, shoulder widening, and replacing of an existing bridge with a box culvert. Construction is anticipated to be completed in early August.

Phase 2 - South of Spanish Creek South is located on US 191 between Storm Castle Road and the Lava Lake Trailhead. This phase includes pavement preservation work that will extend the service life of the roadway. Construction on this phase of the project will begin in late May and is anticipated to continue through July.

MTDOT

I-90 more like I-65

Speaking of the DOT. Announced April 5th 2024, the speed limit was recently changed from 75 to 65 mph from Valley Spur all the way to Bear Canyon since Bozeman is now classified as a Metropolitan area (population exceeding 50,000). Apparently the fire department has been pushing for this for over a decade for an easier way to enter I-90.

Big Sky home on fire

March 30th there was a house fire near Lower Cascade Ridge Road in Big Sky that was sparked by a propane explosion. One woman was injured and was airlifted to Idaho Falls.

MT DOT invitation for bids due April 25th

7 Projects in/near Lolo, Eureka, Neihart, Butte, Missoula, Anaconda, and Ravalli

MTDOT Late April Invitation for Bids

Urban renovation of the week

Craigslist Finds - Bridger condos and Montucky van

Craigslist Van Listing

US Wide

Construction Dive Top 5

1. Caltrans taps Teichert for initial $1M Highway 1 response

California’s highway department awarded an emergency contract to the Sacramento-based contractor after a slide temporarily stranded thousands of people over Easter weekend.

2. Autodesk to audit financial practices, delay annual report

3. DC’s $8.8B Union Station upgrade moves forward

4. OSHA publishes final employee walkaround rule

5. New York GC opens new headquarters

Construction Dive

Island Concrete Deltas

Hold my drink commodities

(Prices as of Saturday 04/06/2024)

Silver - $27.48/oz - Up 9.58% week over week touching its 3 year high

Copper - $4.24/lb - Up 5.67% week over week

Coffee - $213.40 cents/lb - Up 11.26% week over week reaching levels not seen since mid December, amid worries that extensive rainfall in Brazil's coffee-growing zones might have inflicted harm on coffee crops.

Cocoa - $9,940/ton - no change week over week, continuing to keep an eye on this especially since its still sitting +240% YoY.

Tea - $2.65/Kgs - Up 34.52% week over week

Blue collar history

Reasonable and prudent speeds of Montana

In celebration of Bozeman’s new I-90 65mph speed limit. I wanted to commemorate the high speeds Montana used to allow. In summary, if you don’t have the time to read through the timeline below - Montana’s “reasonable and prudent” speed law, stood between 1955 and 1974 and again between 1995 and 1999 for a total of 23 years and we can blame Rudy Stanko’s 1998 case for limits.

1974 - Montana was the only state in the US that had no daytime speed limit. At night, speeds are restricted to 65 mph on interstate highways and 55 mph on two-lanes

1974 part 2 - President Nixon signs the Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act into law enacting a 55-mph national speed limit by threatening to kill fed funding for highways who didn’t comply. Montana complies with the fed by issuing violators (speeders) a nominal fine of $5

1987 - Congress allows states to raise the speed limit to 65 mph on rural interstate highways

1995 - Clinton signs an Act that repeals Nixons funding penalty. End of construction zone petal to the metal - Montana reverts back to its original reasonable and prudent law where violations are issued at officers discretion

1998 - Rudy Stanko is ticketed for going 85 mph bringing up the case to the Supreme Court of Montana challenging that state’s “reasonable and prudent” law is unconstitutionally vague and doesn’t give drivers fair notice of what speed is fast enough to be illegal

1999 - Montana’s legislature sets the state’s daytime speed limit at 75 mph

2015 - Montana increases its speed limit to 80 mph on the interstate for both day and night

Montana Standard & Car and Driver

Weather quotes and work songs

Quotes about weather from Mark Twain

1. If you don’t like our weather, wait a minute.

2. If you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.

3. If you don’t like the Kansas weather today just wait a day and probably tomorrow will suit.

4. If you don’t like the present brand of Nebraska weather just wait fifteen minutes and there will be a different kind of weather.

Working Class Hero - John Lennon

Many thanks for reading and have a fantastic week ahead,

Daniel - not your financial or building advisor