Yellowstone County has signed an agreement with a data center developer that requires the company to pay for wear and tear on county roads if the project proceeds as planned.
The Yellowstone County Board of County Commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to finalize a contract with Big Sky Digital Infrastructure to ensure the developer covers the costs associated with the first phase of its massive data center project just south of the town of Broadview. The project has sparked months of backlash from county residents opposed to the plan.
Public Works Director Monica Plecker stressed in her comments to the commission when she introduced the agreement at its Oct. 15 meeting that it protected taxpayers from shouldering the costs of the private development and did nothing beyond that regarding the Quantica project.
“In no way is this agreement any sort of approval for land use, water, electricity,” Plecker said. “We are talking about the condition of the road and the use of the road.”
The agreement pertains to the route the developer will use to access its land, which amounts to one mile of Heiken Road heading east off of Highway 3, and four miles of Buffalo Trail Road stretching south from Heiken Road to the company’s property. The developer can use only that route to truck in the gravel, fuel, water tanks, machinery and other materials needed for the work, according to the agreement.
Under the agreement, the developer must use drone imagery to inventory current road conditions and conduct weekly inspections of the agreed-upon route. It must lay a new gravel road along the one-mile stretch of Heiken Road that makes up the first part of the l route.
The company doesn’t have to make any improvements to Buffalo Trail Road yet, since it’s been improved in recent years and can withstand the extra traffic associated with the first phase of the project, Plecker told Montana Free Press, in response to emailed questions.
The company must also hire a county-approved contractor who can perform blading, dust control and other jobs within 72 hours of the county’s request. And it has to take out a $250,000 surety bond to cover its obligations to the county.
Big Sky Digital Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Quantica Infrastructure, expects to begin work on Nov. 1, the agreement states. First, the company will build out a gravel road to replace an existing two-track road on its nearly 8-square-mile property, and next it will build a gravel pad for a well. The well should be drilled by May 1, 2027, according to the company’s plans cited in the agreement.
The agreement signed Tuesday covers only the initial phase of the project, which includes road work and the creation of the well. After that, the county and Big Sky Digital Infrastructure will likely need to sign a new agreement covering future work.
The work on Heiken Road will be awarded through a public bidding process with Yellowstone County.
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