MINOT, N.D. (KXNET) — If you’re driving around North Dakota, there’s a high chance that you’re still seeing snow on the side of the roads.
Once spring starts and the weather starts warming up, it signals the beginning of construction in the state.
“Construction season really starts as the frost is really out of the ground if we’re doing any earthwork. Temperatures have to be up over a certain degree for paving projects to begin, things like that. So it’s all weather dependent,” said Chad Beggs, the assistant district director for the North Dakota Department of Transportation’s Minot District.
And construction really is, as we saw last year, with our late April blizzard, it signaled a much later start to the season.
“They started more so in middle to late May due to the Easter blizzard we kinda had last year. Prior to that, we’re usually starting earlier in May,” said Beggs.
While Beggs says he hasn’t spoken with every single construction contractor in the Minot District, he says the ones he has spoken to so far, are optimistic they can start sooner this year.
“Right now a lot of the talk is they’re hoping to get started in May, mid-May. Depends on what the future weeks, the future storms that we’re seeing are going to do,” said Beggs.
And the Minot District has quite a few construction projects already planned.
“For Minot up to the North Side of Kenmare, they’ll be a passing lanes project begin done on Highway 52. That contractor’s actually started already with work on extensions of box culverts. And then we have Highway 52 from Minot down to Balfour. And that one they’re looking at probably mid-May to get started. That’s another passing lanes project,” said Beggs.
Beggs says construction season can start as early as April and last into November if the temperatures are warm enough.
Beggs says once construction does start, drivers should always remember to drive slowly around the zones because the people working out there are moms, dads, brothers, and sisters.
And we want them to get home at the end of the night.
