Construction season starts in area
By Jerry W. Kram
The two seasons in North Dakota are said to be winter and road construction and winter is over.
Several road projects are planned for the region this summer and fall and the North Dakota Department of Transportation is asking motorists to be careful in work zones.
The biggest local project will be the reconstruction of North Dakota Highway 37 from Parshall south to Raub, about four miles east of the junction with Highway 1804. At a public meeting at the Parshall City Hall in 2019, project manager Theresa Maahs explained the project.Maahs said the project will extend from the junction of Highways 37 and 23 to Raub. The project will widen most of the length of the project and increase the thickness of the blacktop to upgrade the highway from a seven ton load limit to an eight ton limit.
“We will add about four and a half inches of bituminous on top of what is there right now,” Maahs said. “We are adding two foot shoulders for safety. The area north of Parshall is already wider than the rest of the corridor. We want to widen the corridor from 24 feet to 28 feet.”
The first two miles of the project from Highway 23 to south of Parshall has already been widened and will only receive an overlay of asphalt. The remaining roadway will be widened two feet on each side to add shoulders that should increase traffic safety. Maahs said surveys indicated that the Highway doesn’t have enough traffic to warrant adding turning lanes at approaches to county roads, although that was a common request from the public. She did say those approaches would be leveled out for the width of the state right-of-way (75 feet from the center of the highway) to increase the safety of the approaches.
