Jill Schramm/MDN Ward County Commissioners Jim Rostad, left, and Ron Merritt, right, take part in a commission discussion Tuesday, Oct. 7, on a Central Dakota Metropolitan Planning Organization transportation plan after hearing details of the proposed plan from Joel Mann with Bolton and Menk, who appears remotely on screen.

Preservation and maintenance are priorities in a proposed transportation plan developed for the Minot, Burlington and Surrey area through the Central Dakota Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Public input is being sought this month on the proposed plan as efforts are underway to complete final approvals by the end of the year, according to Joel Mann, senior transportation planner with consulting firm Bolton and Menk.

John Van Dyke, executive director for CDMPO, and Mann presented the proposed plan to the Ward County Commission Tuesday, Oct. 7.

A public survey and other outreach tools earlier in the process determined that keeping existing transportation systems should be the focus, Mann said.

“A big takeaway from this for us was that maintaining the system we already have and keeping our streets and roads in a state of good repair is as important as adding to that system as we grow. So, we don’t want to completely get away from the need to keep our transportation infrastructure in good condition, even though we might need new additions to it,” he said.

He added the plan builds on planning that has been taking place before the area was federally designated for an MPO in 2023.

“This is a multimodal plan. It’s looking at all forms of travel and transportation and funding sources that come to the Minot region,” Mann said. “It’s about all the users of the system being accommodated, but it’s also about ties to land use and development and how the region is going to grow.

“But, ultimately, this is really about continued economic growth and economic development for the Minot region, and that any investments we’re making in transportation should support that,” he said.

Among issues addressed in the plan are rehabilitation and reconstruction of roads, reliable operations for traffic and circulation and safety improvements. The plan includes about 90 capital projects costing nearly $500 million.

Mann referred to a “fiscally constrained plan” in describing the strategy for funding transportation elements in an environment in which not all proposed projects can be paid for with expected revenues.

In the short-term, 2026-30, the focus will be on projects already programmed through the North Dakota Department of Transportation. Beyond that timeframe, the plan considers existing funding streams and how they can best be used.

“The big focus of the fiscally constrained plan is on preserving the system. We do have some new capacity additions for roads, new projects, that add to the transportation system’s overall inventory, but a lot of this is really about preservation, restoration of existing roads, preserving the lifespan of our transportation system that already exists,” Mann said.

The fiscally constrained list includes two portions of the southwest connector that has been part of the southwest-southeast connector study, looking at a transportation corridor south of Minot.

“That project has won a federal grant to move further into development of that concept in engineering , and we feel pretty confident that at least these portions that start to build that corridor out could fit within your current funding sources,” Mann said.

The plan highlights the potential for $315 million in federal transportation formula funds that could come to the area over the next 25 years, along with about $275 million from Ward County and state sources, although this money would be for countywide use and not just the MPO. Minot is listed at about $187 million in potentially available funds, based on current resources.

Projects that don’t have funding tied to them aren’t in the fiscally constrained plan but remain in an illustrative or aspirational plan in event grant funds arise that make them feasible. Mann noted the plan will be updated on five-year cycles.

The plan has been presented to the cities of Burlington and Surrey and will be presented to the City of Minot later this month. When the public input period ends on Monday, Oct. 27, the plan will be presented to the CDMPO’s technical advisory committee, which will determine if more public comment is needed. If not, the plan can be considered for approval by the technical advisory and policy committees in December.

The county commission will consider any recommendations and a letter of support for the plan at its Tuesday, Oct. 21, meeting.