Traffic Problems on State Street | Video

Alex Hagan | 8/17/2012

Road construction can be a pain for drivers, especially on busy roads. Mix that with more commuters coming to Bismarck and you could have major problems.

It`s something you see all over North Dakota, and drivers are trying to cope with it.

"There`s way more traffic and it just seems like everybody drives faster," said Bismarck resident Theo Johnson.

But a new road construction project on the north side of Bismarck is giving both local and commuting drivers headaches.

"It`s just totally inconvenient and I can`t imagine what it`s like for the local residents because we come over in business, we just drive through it in one day. If you had to live with this everyday, you would go nuts," said Corwin Kronenberg, who commutes to Bismarck.

But the Department of Transportation says the project is needed because it`s such a busy road.

"This project on State St. includes CPR work, that`s concrete, pavement repair. So we`re taking out bad portions of concrete you know like potholes and fixing them up," said Doug Fercho with the DOT.

Drivers during the day are also noticing something else.

"When you drive through, there`s construction cones all over the place and you don`t see any workers and like nothing happened and it looks like it`s never going to end," Kronenberg said.

While drivers may notice workers aren`t out there at certain times, DOT officials say they are working at a different time of the day.

"Now they shifted to a joint ceiling and need to get their equipment in the adjacent lanes so the only way they are allowed to do that is to work at night," Fercho said.

The good news, the DOT says that once the project is done, further repairs shouldn`t be needed for a long time.

"It`s been about nine years since this concrete was placed so they`re just finding all the bad spots and trying to fix them up and hopefully they will last another 9-10 years," Fercho said.

And some drivers understand that the construction is necessary.

"It just has to be done in North Dakota during the summer. We all know that so we just kind of take it in stride," Johnson said.

DOT officials say Century Ave north of town was just opened back up this morning. They plan to have the project done in late September.

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