Construction work wraps up on Main Street in Minot just in time for holiday shopping

Following months of intermittent construction at the three intersections along downtown Minot, the whole street is now open.

Downtown Minot is open for traffic, and for business.

Crews just wrapped up the main work of 'Phase II' of the Downtown Revitalization, a three-year project to rebuild downtown from the bottom up.

But it's come with a cost for business owners up and down Main Street.

“We have maybe seen a little bit of a downtown since the construction has been going on, but the guys working out there have actually been really good to us,” said Tami Bradley, Century Eyewear Owner.

Val Stadick, the longtime owner of Main Street Books said she's felt the pinch in her bottom line.

“Our sales have dipped. I think the public relations part of it has, a lot of people are upset. They haven't been shopping downtown,” Stadick said.

City leaders joined business owners in celebrating the opening of the road Tuesday. Mayor Chuck Barney praised Minot's business owners for their perseverance.

Chuck Barney: "I know that it hasn't been easy. I know that you have suffered, and I want to thank you for your patience in helping us restore downtown Minot into the jewel that it is,” Barney said.

“I think I want to cry, actually. It makes me so happy to see what a wonderful job the city did,” Stadick said.

“Having the street ripped up in front of you is not something that you ever want to have to put your business through. But, it was a necessity, and it was something that needed to be done. And now, when it's finally finished, it looks beautiful,” Bradley said.

City Engineer Lance Meyer said crews will begin the final two blocks of 'Phase II' and work on 'Phase III' in late April or early May of 2017, but for now Main Street has new life.

For some perspective on the scope of all this, Meyer said that in the end the project will come in between $28 and $30 million, from a variety of different funding sources.

Meyer said crews will work on the block north of Main Street by the railroad tracks and the block near Bremer Bank in the spring, and then begin ‘Phase III’ which will include 1st Street SW, and parts of 3rd Avenue SW, and 2nd Street NE.