At some point next summer, Fargo’s 10th Street North will undergo road construction.
“The purpose of the project along Fargo 10th Street North is to reconstruct the roadway to address deteriorating pavement and underground infrastructure conditions,” Aaron Murra, a transportation engineer with the North Dakota Department of Transportation design division, said.
“Along with reconstruction of the roadway, the storm sewer, sanitary sewer and water main will also be replaced,” Murra added.
Potentially deteriorating pedestrian areas may also be fixed during the project.
“The street will include two driving lanes as well as a bike lane. Sidewalk reconstruction will occur where necessary,” Murra said. “This project is similar in nature to the work that was completed recently on 10th Street from 12th Avenue to 17th Avenue.”
Murra said the proposed construction is scheduled to take place in the summer of 2018 and will likely take a “good portion” of the summer to be completed.
Community members and North Dakota State students will only face one detour during the construction project. Murra said the detour will prevent unexpected changes for drivers.
For those who regularly utilize the 10th Street North bike route, Murra said “an alternate bike route will also be utilized to maintain a facility for bicycles.”
Briena Jarvi, a freshman at NDSU majoring in medical laboratory science, said the project is “frustrating, because I take that road to get to class every day.”
Liz Thorson, a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering, said, “It’s good that they are doing the construction in the summer, but it will still be an inconvenience to students and locals.”
“The main impact to the public will be through the use of a detour or an alternate route. In this case traffic will be temporarily detoured to University Drive between 4th Avenue and 12th Avenue,” Murra said. “Bicycles traveling both directions will be temporarily routed to different nearby designated bicycle facilities.”
While the construction project is not yet fully fleshed out, there are parameters being set at the moment and the plan for the project is to have a fully developed arrangement in place well before the project is expected to commence.
“The project is in the early stages of the development and detailed costs estimates are in the works, but a high level preliminary estimate is about $6 million,” Murra said.
“The typical funding breakdown on projects like this is approximately 80 percent federal, 10 percent state and 10 percent city,” Murra said.