Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/montana-rail-link/)
Last spring, Maisie Sulser Handley and her husband, Michael Handley, thought they were close to completing their purchase of the old Mintana Mills warehouse on Minnesota Avenue at South 26th Street. Sulser Handley had recently left her job with an architectural firm so she and her husband, a contractor, could start a new business, Restôr Design + Build. They wanted to focus on projects that involved historic preservation, renovation and downtown redevelopment. (more…) Continue Reading →
A gray sky spits cold drizzle as a dozen protesters gather on a gritty road shoulder in north Bozeman. They take up signs—”COAL KILLS” one reads—and wave to passing traffic. But their attention is mostly on the railroad tracks a hundred feet away. (more…) Continue Reading →
A week from Saturday, Billings Depot Inc. is throwing a black-tie Taste of Billings celebration that depot director Jennifer Mercer hopes will be “the most elegant, luxurious event Billings has ever seen.”
That’s quite a claim, and it’s all the more remarkable considering that the setting, the old Northern Pacific Railway Depot on Montana Avenue, was in wretched condition just 20 years ago, and had nearly been demolished 25 years ago. (more…) Continue Reading →
Last month, I wrote a story about how a man driving a pickup and pulling a skid steer on a trailer crashed into and damaged the railroad underpass at North 21st Street between Minnesota and Montana avenues. Well, this morning a little after 11, I was standing about 20 feet away when another person, this one driving a U-Haul, crashed into the underpass, which is owned by Montana Rail Link. (more…) Continue Reading →
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. (more…) Continue Reading →
Lay of the Land: A series of essays on the spirit of Montana
I don’t know what to do in the wilderness and I seldom go to it. I live in Missoula, Montana, perhaps one of the best cities in America for easily accessing world-class wilderness areas, and yet I am an infrequent visitor to the hills surrounding town. Sometimes, when I am feeling lazy, I blame this on the fact that I have neither a car nor a driver’s license, but then I remember a 20-minute bike ride will do, because I live in Missoula, Montana. (more…) Continue Reading →
It was amazing to watch the Billings City Council come within a whisker last night of undoing 13 years’ worth of work on a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks. Mike Ferguson does a good job of explaining what happened in his Gazette story this morning. But for the benefit of people — particularly people sitting on the City Council — who don’t know some of the history behind this project, bear with me. (more…) Continue Reading →
Nearly 13 years after it was proposed, a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks in downtown Billings might finally be built this summer. Chris Hertz, an engineer with the city’s Public Works Department, expects to call for construction bids by mid-May, which would mean beginning construction in mid-June. (more…) Continue Reading →
