Mike Bittner, transportation engineer with Bolton & Menk, Fargo, on Tuesday presented county commissioners with the conclusions of a Southeast-Southwest Connector Corridor Study conducted for the county and the North Dakota Department of Transportation. The study, led by a local project steering committee had elicited input from stakeholders who included the freight and agricultural communities, emergency responders and residents living in the areas of proposed routes.  

The study developed a phased approach to implementing travel corridors. Bittner outlined a first phase that would entail improvements on County Road 17 from its connection with U.S. 2 & 52 west of Minot. Estimated cost is $25 million to $30 million.

“This route is going to be used for access to Trinity Hospital, regardless of whether we make improvements on it or not,” he said. “This first phase would really be to make it acceptable to get to the hospital safely.

“We also see an opportunity to improve the safety and aesthetics of the trestle bridge while still maintaining basically the same cross section,” he added. “But it certainly is a challenging area to navigate through as it stands today — a lot of curvature and some skewed intersections.”

Submitted Photo A map shows routes and phases in a proposed southeast-southwest connector corridor around Minot. At left, phase one includes County Road 17 and phase two includes 30th Street Southwest. South of Minot, phase three, at left runs along County Road 14 and 66th Avenue, and phase four runs along County Road 16 and 79th Avenue.

Ward County Highway Engineer Dana Larsen said the county’s highway committee has looked for safety improvements that the county can make now.

“That really needs to be addressed sooner than later,” he said.

“County Road 17 is already being used. I think traffic over the last three or four years has already increased, and I’m assuming on opening day, when the hospital opens, it will start increasing more.”

Other unwieldy intersections where improvements would bring benefits are at County Roads 12 and 17 and County Roads 14 and 17. 

The commission approved seeking outside funding for improvements from U.S. 2 & 52 to County Road 14. The county expects to be working with the NDDOT as lead on any improvements related to the federal highway.

Larsen said federal funds should be readily accessible for these types of projects.

“I think there’s a very strong opportunity for us to get those safety funds to put in those intersections,” he said of phase one. 

“There’s a bunch of new funding sources,” he added. “I think if the county and the city and state can work together, just like we did on the northeast bypass, I think that it improves our ability to get those funds.”

A second phase of the corridor would entail improvements to 30th Street Southwest, which would carry largely local traffic as opposed to trucks. The cost could be anywhere from $55 million to $110 million, depending on alternatives.

Phase three would include improvements to the intersection at County Road 14 (37th Avenue) and U.S. 83 and upgrades to 66th and 93rd avenues, which now are gravel roads.  The cost is estimated at $35 million to $40 million.

Those first three phases could occur in 10 to 15 years, according to the study report.

Phase four, costing another $35 million to $40 million, is projected out for 15 to 20 years. It provides further roadway improvements to County Road 16 or a new connectivity to the properties along 79th Avenue Southeast.

There are opportunities for pedestrian and bicycle improvements with many of the proposed changes, the study report states.

Farther into the future, roadway upgrades to additional segments of 30th Street Southwest could improve driving conditions for rural developments such as Beaver Creek.