DOT Using New Pavement - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

DOT Using New Pavement

The North Dakota Department of Transportation is using new technology in the Bakken region designed to get roads fixed up sooner...and last longer.

This new highway building technique has been used in the Red River Valley...and by Rugby as well -- with great results.

Perry Olson shows us what is happening on a stretch of Highway 2 just north of Williston that the D-O-T hopes will serve the region for at least two decades.

An interview on Highway 2 by Williston isn't easy!

(Clayton Schumaker - ND Dept. of Transportation) "Just one second..."

Clayton Schumaker with the DOT was here Tuesday talking about new road technology for the heavy traffic...

(Clayton Schumaker - ND Dept. of Transportation) "...as I mentioned it is one of our tools in our tool box..."

...but he had to wait to deliver the message. The traffic here is fierce...and tough on roads -- so the DOT has made an upgrade, with great results. The make-up of highway 2 north out of Williston is changing. It is called composite pavement.

(Clayton Schumaker - ND Dept. of Transportation) "That composite pavement has the same life as if we would reconstruct it or do an asphalt overlay."

Here is how it works -- the old roadway isn't totally taken away -- rather the base is left...and concrete poured over it. That makes the new road stronger, safer, and last longer...

(Clayton Schumaker - ND Dept. of Transportation) "We are able to reduce the time of the project and reduce the cost needed and the big benefit will be the safety that we achieve once the roadway is completed."

Rutting no longer is a problem on a road like this -- and it can handle the heavy loads traveling over it...it is also being implemented at the lights on the north end of Williston...and it's strength will be key to years of service here too...

(Robert Seghetti - Acme Concrete Paving) "A lot of the wear that they are seeing at intersections with the stop and go traffic and the starting, that will be minimized."

It is another step in the process of making the Bakken region strong enough to handle the growth that continues to occur at break-neck speed. Perry Olson, KX News.

Hope is to have the project complete and ready for traffic by mid-October.

The new composite pavement is also going in near New Town as well.