Sometime this fall, traffic on Montana Highway 82 will move off the old Sportsman's Bridge and onto the new span the Montana Department of Transportation has been building just south of it. The old bridge comes down this winter, and MDT expects the whole project to wrap up in spring or summer 2027. For anyone driving MT 82 east from Somers toward Bigfork, that sounds like the end of more than a year of flaggers.

It is the end of one piece. The $47.5 million project rebuilds the river crossing and the turns at Oldenburg Road and Hanging Rock Drive. It does not touch the intersection where MT 82 meets Montana Highway 35 at the Bigfork end. MDT says that junction is outside the bridge project and is being handled through a separate study. The new bridge will change the middle of the drive this winter. The end of the drive stays the same for now.

Where the work stood in mid-October

MDT's October 16 update had crews installing an expansion joint in the new deck. That joint lets the concrete expand and contract with temperature swings. For the following week, the update scheduled concrete around the joint and for the curbs and guardrails, all on the new deck with no traffic disruption. Paving was planned for the middle of that week. Subcontractor Schellinger Construction was compacting soil and gravel around the bridge supports, laying gravel for the approach roadway and spreading topsoil on the west side.

MDT has published no specific day for the switch. Its schedule says only "Fall 2026." The best way to catch it is the project updates page, which also links to a live site camera.

Here is the sequence in MDT's own schedule terms, with the dates already behind us filled in:

1. August 2025: Work began on what the Daily Inter Lake described as a two-year effort expected to finish in 2027.
2. Late 2025 through spring 2026: Higher-than-normal water made it hard to position barges, and April weather delayed foundation concrete.
3. October 6–7, 2026: Deck concrete was placed. The eastbound lane closed from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wednesday, with delays of up to 15 minutes and a 10-foot width restriction.
4. Fall 2026: Traffic moves onto the new bridge.
5. Winter 2026: The old bridge is demolished.
6. Spring/Summer 2027: Project completion.

KPAX laid out the same order last December: finish the new span, shift traffic, then take down the old one. Until the switch, crews work weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with flaggers at both ends to manage trucks entering and leaving the site. The work zone has been posted at 35 mph.

What the new span is built to do

Most of what changes at the river is width, height and weight capacity.

It stays a two-lane bridge on purpose. MDT says its traffic studies and growth models show two lanes will meet demand "for decades to come," and that the design limits impacts on neighboring landowners. So the crossing gets roomier but not faster in lane count. The 10-foot shoulders make the biggest everyday difference: more room for a stalled car, a wide farm load, or anyone on foot.

Walkers are allowed on the new bridge, but there is no dedicated bike lane or pedestrian walkway. Flathead County's long-range transportation plan includes a shared-use path linking MT 82 with Montana Highway 83. If that path is ever built, MDT says the shoulders could carry it with striping and a protective rail added. That depends on a county project with no schedule in MDT's materials. For now, cyclists heading toward Bigfork get a wide shoulder, not a separate path.

Two side roads get their own fixes

The project also rebuilds two intersections near the river.

At Oldenburg Road, MT 82 gets a left-turn lane and a right-turn slip lane, a short lane that lets drivers turn right without entering the intersection. These serve the new Sportsman's Bridge Fishing Access Site on the west bank. A dedicated turn lane and slip lane give drivers turning toward the boat ramp their own space off the through lanes.

At Hanging Rock Drive, new left- and right-turn lanes are going in. These were first planned for an east-side fishing access site. That site plan changed, but MDT kept the turn lanes in the project. Crews started removing asphalt at the intersection in early October, with Hanging Rock Drive down to one flagged lane during the work. MDT's FAQ also warns that if crews have to blast rock there, MT 82 could close for up to 30 minutes at a time, with advance notice.

The junction that sits outside the project

East of the river, MT 82 ends at MT 35. MDT's project FAQ addresses this intersection directly and says possible improvements there are "not within the scope of the Sportsman's Bridge project."

The department goes on:

"MDT is aware of the congestion and crash trends at the intersection of MT 35 and 82 and is in the process of finalizing a study that identifies how best to address those issues, whether it is the installation of a traffic signal or something else."

MDT adds that once a project is chosen, "it may take several years to come to completion," depending on its scope. Read the two timelines together. The bridge, the Oldenburg Road turns and the Hanging Rock Drive turns are on schedule to finish by summer 2027. The MT 35 junction is still at the study stage, has no announced design, and comes with a multi-year warning once a design exists.

So for a trip from Somers to Bigfork next summer, the river crossing and the side-road turns will be new, and the junction at the Bigfork end will work the way it does today. A wider bridge feeding the same intersection may move traffic faster across the river and into the existing wait at MT 35.

On the water through demolition

Most of the in-river work so far shows how this winter could go. Here is what MDT and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks have said about the river side:

• The new west-bank fishing access site stays open. MDT says the Sportsman's Bridge FAS and boat ramp on the west side remain open through construction. The old east-side site is closed for good.
• The ramp has already been reworked once. The Bigfork Eagle reported in March that FWP closed the new ramp from March 16 to mid-April to lengthen and steepen it and remove launching obstacles.
• River closures are usually short, but not always. MDT's FAQ expects temporary closures under the bridge to last up to eight hours each. The steel-beam closure in July was longer. It ran from 7 a.m. July 8 to 6 p.m. July 9 and covered every type of craft from about 20 feet upstream to 300 feet downstream. The FAS stayed open for boaters heading downstream.
• The FAS has been part of the construction footprint before. In October 2025, the Bigfork Eagle reported that the state wanted a temporary equipment exit road through the access site to cut delays on Oldenburg Road and MT 82.

MDT has not announced any river closure for the old bridge's demolition. Given the July closure, a demolition notice could run longer than the FAQ's eight-hour estimate. MDT says the public will be notified of restrictions in advance. Anyone planning a late-season float or a cold-weather launch at the access site should check the MDT news page before hitching up.

How the winter plays out

Once traffic is on the new bridge, the old one becomes a demolition site next to the open roadway, and the rest of the project runs toward its spring or summer 2027 finish. Intermittent single-lane closures are still possible. MDT has said MT 82 stays open to traffic throughout, except for the possible short blasting closures at Hanging Rock Drive. Sletten Construction, the Great Falls company that won the contract, has built bridges across the western United States since 1958.

For a Somers driver, the changes come in stages. This fall brings a smoother, wider crossing. Over the winter, the old span comes down beside it. By spring or summer 2027, MDT expects the full project, including the turns at Oldenburg Road and Hanging Rock Drive, to be complete. The stop at MT 35 will still be there, waiting on MDT's study.

If you're comparing homes on the Somers and Bigfork sides of the river and want to talk through how MT 82 fits into your week, Liz McGavin is happy to set up a free consultation and walk the route with you.