Billings Plans $28.6 Million Infrastructure Push for Roads, Bridges

Billings Public Works has committed $28.6 million to pavement and bridge work in the current fiscal year, with 3.1 miles already under contract on 27th Street North and Rimrock Road.

The outlays arrive as Yellowstone County property tax receipts rose 4.8 percent last quarter, giving the city a larger share of state fuel-tax distributions that must be spent on streets by state law. Without these projects, the backlog of cracked arterials would add an estimated $2.1 million in annual vehicle repair costs for local drivers, according to the city’s 2025 pavement-condition index report.

Work crews began milling and overlay on 27th Street North between Grand Avenue and the railroad underpass on June 2, while a separate crew is replacing the 52-year-old deck on the Rimrock Road bridge over the Yellowstone River. Both jobs fall under the city’s Capital Improvement Program and are tracked in monthly spreadsheets released by the Public Works Department at its 2224 Montana Avenue office.

Cost per mile and timeline data

City records list the 27th Street segment at $1.92 million per mile, including new curb and gutter. The Rimrock bridge replacement carries a $9.4 million price tag, or roughly $470 per square foot of deck area. These figures sit 11 percent above the 2024 average for similar Montana Department of Transportation jobs because of steel and asphalt price spikes recorded in the first quarter. The remaining $7.3 million of the total budget will cover 4.3 miles of chip-seal treatments on side streets in the Heights and South Side neighborhoods, with all paving scheduled to end by October 15.

Project tracking sheets also show that 62 percent of the $28.6 million comes from federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds, 28 percent from local street-maintenance levies and 10 percent from state fuel-tax transfers. Completion dates are fixed: the 27th Street overlay must reach final acceptance by September 30, and the Rimrock bridge must reopen to two-way traffic no later than June 30, 2027.

Next steps for residents

Drivers can check the city’s online construction map for daily lane closures or sign up for text alerts through the Public Works website. Property owners along affected corridors received notices last week that detail exact start and end dates for work in front of their addresses. The next round of bids for 2027 projects will open in October, with the city council scheduled to review updated cost estimates at its September 8 meeting.