The intersection of Rocky Point Road with U.S. 93 north of Polson is always busy, especially during the summer months as lakeshore residents struggle to get on and off the highway. It’s likely to get worse with construction vehicles entering and exiting the highway from Irvine Flats Road where building has begun on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ new casino, 400 Horses.

A meeting of about 30 citizens concerned about public safety at the intersection met at the Masumola Club off Rocky Point Road in May. Jan Smith Kassen, who lives on Rocky Point Road, spearheaded the gathering with help from neighbor Randy Holmes, “who took up the gavel and started researching,” she said.

The group expressed concerns about dump trucks, semis, and cement trucks turning left onto Irvine Flats Road, building up a line of waiting vehicles and stopping traffic coming south on U.S. 93 while they completed their turn. Those lines of traffic could also make it difficult to turn left on the highway from Rocky Point Road as well as turn right onto Rocky Point Road.

Holmes began his research by taking a look at the traffic study done by KLJ Engineering, hired by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes prior to building the casino. A traffic study is required when there is ingress and egress from a highway.

The copy Holmes studied was on Polson’s website as the casino development was annexed into the city in 2024 for water and sewer service. It was published in September and updated April 3.

This study only concerns Irvine Flats Road, which turns south off of U.S. 93 just east of the Rocky Point Road intersection, across from The Shoe restaurant and Shoreline Drive. KLJ Engineering recommendations for what should be done to mitigate the casino’s traffic impact at Irvine Flats Road were to establish two turn lanes on U.S. 93: a left turn lane onto Irvine Flats Road for northbound traffic and a right turn lane for southbound traffic. In addition, the report recommended a right turn lane for traffic emerging from Irvine Flats Road, a center lane that could take traffic across to the Shoe or left onto U.S. 93, and a traffic light at the intersection.

LKJ projected that the first phase of the casino would generate about 2,400 cars on weekdays and 3,100 on weekends. The hotel, coming in during the second phase, would add another roughly 2,300 vehicles.

A 2023 traffic study by the Montana Department of Transportation found an average of 8,577 vehicles daily pass Irvine Flats Road and Rocky Point Road on U.S. 93; it was updated in 2024 to 8,643 cars per day.

“If you take 8,600, add phases one and two, you get right around 14,000 cars a day, about a 64% increase in traffic,” Holmes said during last month’s meeting.

The meeting ended with Smith-Kassen and Holmes asking for help from audience members in doing research and meeting with city, county and tribal officials.

In June, Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron said the city and county got together and signed a letter drafted by Polson City Manager Ed Meece requesting a new speed study and an intersection count on the stretch of U.S. 93 that includes Rocky Point Road and Irvine Flats Road as soon as possible. The letter has been sent to the Montana Department of Transportation, Barron said.

At a meeting with Bob Vosen, head of Montana Department of Transportation's Missoula District, held April 7,  county commissioners were told that improvements at those intersections aren't in the current budget. 

Smith-Kasson, who attended that meeting as well, asked Vosen if he had safety concerns about Rocky Point Road. 

“Of course, I have safety concerns,” Vosen said. “I have 30 intersections on my white board at work. I've got a little bit of money and a whole lot of problems.”

The Montana Department of Transporation uses a benefit cost analysis, Vosen said at the time, and so far, there is not a crash trend at the Rocky Point Road intersection. There are “many, many intersections on Highway 93 with higher traffic” so the department has to be judicious, he said. He predicted that during Phase one of 400 Horses Casino, "the traffic won’t be such that it will require intersection improvement."