Green Light for Underpass Upgrade - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Green Light for Underpass Upgrade

Minot's 6th street underpass, near the Library, will soon be undergoing changes to improve traffic flow and drainage.

Today at a special meeting of the city council, Alderman approved spending 4.28 million dollars to lower the grade of the street at the bridge.

Currently the underpass, which was built in 1959, only has a clearance of ten feet-eleven inches and is too low for Minot's larger fire department ladder trucks to go under.

The project also calls for larger pumps to better handle drainage, as the underpass frequently floods during heavy rains.

City Engineer Lance Meyer says this construction would fall in-line with the proposed flood control plan and only a small portion would be modified when the diversion channel in that area is built.

(Lance Meyer, Minot City Engineer) "Only portion of this project would be modified, that I can see would be a small portion of outlet, force main and that's a, in the overall scene of this project, that portion would be very minor."

The project passed by a vote of 9 to 2.

Construction could start as early as this June on the 6th street underpass.

Traffic will be re-routed until the project is complete.