More Construction Planned for US Highway 2

After a long summer of seeing the color orange, in just about every direction you can plan on seeing even more of that color over the next five years. In a tale of two cities (those being the city of Bemidji and the town of Wilton), major changes are in the works for US Highway 2.

The plan is to make that stretch of roadway safer by installing R.C.I’s, or reduced conflict intersections. The plan is for motorists wanting to cross the highway they would need to take a right turn first, merge over to a left lane and then make a u-turn to go the opposite direction.

Road construction is familiar sight on this stretch of roadway, where continued efforts to make Highway 2 safe continues to take place.

Two years ago a major road construction project at the intersection of US Highway 2 and Highway 89 left a significant impact on area businesses. Now the fear is with the proposed changes to US Highway 2, it could leave a lasting impact.

Bill Schroeder, owner of Pete’s Place West, doesn’t see the need for the R.C.I’s and fears it will no longer make his convenience store convenient.

While the location of the R.C.I intersections has not been decided, MnDOT says they will have a final decision made by the Spring of 2018.

The R.C.I. intersections are a new concept to the area. The very first one will be built next summer at the intersection of US Highway 2 and 69^th Avenue Northwest near the current Palace Casino in Cass Lake.