DOT: motorists can expect delays
DOT: motorists can expect delays
BY ROBYN ROHDE
INTERIM EDITOR
With the summer sun and temperatures comes construction season. Pretty much no matter where you travel, motorists in Mountrail and Ward Counties can expect delays throughout the next month.
The biggest project that most motorists are going to run into is the grading project on Highway 23 west of New Town. Known as the deadliest highway in North Dakota, The number of cars and trucks using the road in the last five years has more than doubled, and there have been a handful of fatal crashes.
Last year the Department of Transportation added rumble stripes to the road but this time around they are going one step further by straightening out both the horizontal and vertical curves and making the road wider with shoulders and passing lanes.
“It’s been quite a challenge there with the heavy traffic and keeping it flowing,” Assistant Williston District Engineer Joel Wilt explained. “They have basically head-to-head traffic with pilot cars and it takes at least 15-20 minutes to get through. Every day something different happens whether it be a lot of rain or trucks breaking down; all those things make it back up so bad and it’s a real long wait trying to get it going again.”
