Highway 22 Expansion | Video

Alex Hagan | 6/18/2012

Highways in western North Dakota are in desperate need of more lanes. Highway 22 just outside of Dickinson is one of those roads. Even before the oil boom, the highway had a lot of traffic.

"You just wait until there`s an opening, then you look to the right and if there`s an opening you can go. But sometimes you wait 15-20 min," said Gordan Kadrmas, who lives along the highway.

Now with more oil truck traffic, some residents are now scared to even be on the road.

"I drive my tractor most of the time in the ditch. I don`t even pull it on the highway, it`s too busy."

The North Dakota Department of Transportation has noticed.

"We`ve been having some travel issues, congestion, like backed up traffic and truck traffic. Especially if you`re going on Highway 22 towards Killdeer, once you get to Highway 200," said Project Coordinator Kyle Niess.

Although there has been traffic and safety concerns on Highway 22 in the past, the Department of Transportation is doing everything it can to make it easier to turn onto the road.

"We are widening it. We`re going from a two lane to a five lane roadway so there will be two lanes going, traveling north, and two lanes traveling south with a turn lane in the middle," Niess said.

Residents hope the process goes smoothly.

"I hope everything turns out okay, nobody gets hurt on this road before they`re done," Kadrmas said.

But residents will have to continue to be patient while workers provide the necessary expansion on the busy highway. DOT Employees say they hope to have the highway expansion done by November of this year.

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