Tester Secures More than $3 Million to Improve Safety, Invest in Infrastructure Across Indian Country

Resources Will Fund Projects on Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, & Fort Peck Reservations

(U.S. Senate) – As part of his ongoing effort to create jobs, improve safety, and invest in infrastructure across Indian Country, Senator Jon Tester has secured more than $3 million to upgrade, reinforce, or build new roads and bridges on the Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, and Fort Peck Reservations.

“Roads, bridges, and highways are essential to connecting communities across a rural state like Montana,” Tester said. “These resources will empower tribes to invest in their transportation infrastructure, create jobs, and make their roads safer for drivers and pedestrians alike.”

The funding comes from the Federal Highway Administration’s Tribal Transportation Program Safety Fund, which Tester prioritized in the latest Highway Bill. As a result, the bill included a 12 percent increase in funding for the Tribal Transportation Program over the next five years.

The more than $3 million Tester helped secure will fund eight different projects:

Blackfeet Tribe – Total: $810,900

• $750,000 – To design and construct guardrails and stabilization mechanisms to protect BIA Route I from landslides.
• $53,400 – To analyze safety conditions on Badger Creek Road, Birch Creek Road, Joe Show East & West Roads, Flat Iron (Haul) Road, North Piegan Road, Boarding School Road, Seville Road, West Shore Road, and Heart Butte Road.
• $7,500 – To update the Blackfeet Reservation’s Tribal Safety Improvement Plan.

Northern Cheyenne Tribe – Total: $1,249,233

• $690,537 – To add payment striping, pedestrian lighting, crosswalk and turning lane improvements to Cheyenne Avenue, a major reservation thoroughfare that has been the site of multiple pedestrian fatalities. 
• $558,696 – To reduce single car rollover accidents by adding alignment signs, advisory speed plaques and chevron alignment signs to most traveled roads across the reservation.

Fort Peck Assiniboine Sioux Tribes – Total: $1,299,000

• $1,000,000 – To construct a pedestrian bridge over the Poplar River on North Park Road and a pedestrian by-pass under the North Park Road just north of the bridge guardrail. 
• $224,000 – To install centerline rumble strips along Route No. 1 in an effort to reduce the number of run-off-the-road accidents from Poplar to Blair.
• $75,000 – To consolidate the Fort Peck Tribes Cash Data into the TTP Office and complete RSA’s on 85 miles of Route No. 1.