Motorist knocks beam off underpass; repairs on the way

Ed Kemmick/Last Best News

A “crash beam” that was knocked off the North 21st Street underpass on Nov. 21 lies in the middle of the road.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to included the name of the driver who ran into the underpass.

The North 21st Street underpass, closed since a motorist knocked an enormous “crash beam” off the structure on Nov. 21, could be reopened by the end of the week.

Jim Lewis, a spokesman for Montana Rail Link in Missoula, said the railroad, which owns the underpass, will be replacing the damaged beam and brackets and expects to be done by the end of the week.

The brackets that attach the crash beam to the underpass had to be fabricated and were to be completed Monday, Lewis said. The heavy iron beams are attached to both sides of the underpass to absorb the impact of anything hitting the structure.

The narrow underpass between Montana and Minnesota avenues has a clearance of only 8 feet and has been hit more than a few times over the years. Here’s a Billings Gazette story from 2010, involving a fifth-wheel trailer from California, and here’s another from 2009, involving a camper trailer from North Dakota. In photos accompanying both stories, the crash beam is the gray girder against which both vehicles came to a crashing halt.

In the most recent accident, according to Bill Kemp, head of the city’s streets/traffic division, a pickup truck pulling a skid steer on a trailer went under the south side of the underpass and then hit the crash beam on the north side, pulling it clean off the underpass.

Kemp said there apparently is a slight elevation difference between the north and south sides, but 8 feet is the maximum height. Police Lt. Kevin Iffland said the driver, 40-year-old Todd Benson, of Billings, was cited for failure to drive in a careful and prudent manner.

Lewis said MRL “will be seeking restitution from the responsible party,” though he wasn’t sure yet how much the repairs would cost. He also said this was the most extensive damage to a crash beam that MRL had seen at that location.

The underpass, which a lot of people use when trains are blocking the downtown railroad crossings, carry an average daily volume of 1,780 vehicles, city traffic engineer Terry Smith said.

Earlier this year, Candi Millar, head of the city-county Planning Department, said the city was considering seeking a federal grant to build two pedestrian bridges over the tracks, one east and one west of North 27th Street, and to resize and improve the 21st Street underpass, as well as another underpass at North 13th Street.