$2.3M Villard project planned

Talk about it

In the next couple of years Dickinson will have a $2.3 million bandage placed on it.

That’s how North Dakota Department of Transportation officials referred to a mill and overlay project on Villard Street at an informational meeting few attended at City Hall Thursday evening.

“It’s basically kind of a maintenance type of operation to get the pavement into better condition than it is now on the surface,” said Brian Rosin, NDDOT transportation engineer.

The majority of funding is coming from the federal government, but there will also be 80 percent state and 10 percent local shares.

The project, which would begin next spring at the earliest would be in three parts, but when the project starts is dependent on whether federal funds are issued. Otherwise it could start in 2012, Ardin Striefel, local government and NDDOT transportation engineer said. “That’s the only thing, it’s just a big question mark. Right now we don’t have money for it.”

One part would place a new overlay layer on the road running from the west Interstate 94 interchange on Villard to just west off State Avenue. The second piece would be mill and overlay on Villard Street from the end of the first phase to east of 10th Avenue East. Lastly, an overlay project will run from 10th Avenue East to the east 94 interchange.

Dickinson city engineer Shawn Soehren said he doesn’t foresee any serious traffic issues.

“I imagine they will plan on doing half of the street at a time and have one lane of traffic going both directions, trying to keep traffic going as well as possible,” he said.

Soehren said the city has been attempting to get the project done since 2007 because it will be a quick fix for 10 to 15 years before the road needs to be completely replaced.

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