Missoula Prepares for Large Crowd During Bernie Sanders Stop
It's not often that Montana gets to see candidates during a presidential primary, so it's no small thing that democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will be making an appearance in Caras park tomorrow, May 11th. Bill Pfeiffer from Mountain Line, says the city is preparing for a big turnout.
"We're anticipating that there could be some congestion." Pfeiffer said. " We're really encouraging people to take the bus or walk or bike downtown tomorrow, both commuters and rally-goers. They are expecting a pretty good turnout of people, I know that they're preparing the area starting today and that they're anticipating turning people away."
The city is expecting more foot traffic and bike traffic heading into downtown and have altered traffic flow temporarily until the rally dies down. The Missoula Police Department already has plans to close down the outside southbound lane of the Higgins Bridge, many parking areas near Caras Park and even a small section of the riverfront trail. The closures and extra limitation are expected to go back to normal after 3:00 p.m.
"The route seven inbound is not going to travel on Front street. We're just going to avoid that area all together." Pfeiffer said. " Instead its going to travel on Broadway there will be one stop that will be temp closed. other than that we wont have any specific detours were really not sure what to expect exactly and there might be some last minute changes"
Sanders is schedule to speak at 12 a.m. (but the crowds will gather at 10) at the Caras Park Pavilion in downtown Missoula. It is rare for a campaign to still be contested by the time Montana votes, as it is one of the last states in the country to do so.