Williston, the heart of the Bakken, is not a very large city. In 2009, it was a busy year for the Bakken; the city of Williston issued 257 building permits. That's a huge number of permits for Williston.
But wow! In 2010, the city had a whopping 770 permits. I truly cannot fathom a city the size of Williston going from less than 300 permits in one year to almost 800 permits the following year. That's essentially tripling the number of permits in one year. One wonders where all the carpenters, bricklayers electricians, plumbers, architects, building inspectors came from.
Anyway, that's the ranting and raving. Here's the story.
Original Posting
Link here. Regional media so link will be broken soon.
Improved infrastructure will be needed for continued record construction.
Some projects mentioned in the article:
- Oregon developer plans to construct a 72-unit apartment building in Watford City. Given the level of interest by developers, there could be considerably more housing built.
- More office openings in Watford City, but they would have to build because there's not much available
- Williston: 770 permits; $106 million (257; $45 million)
- Watford City: 157 permits (111)
- Williams County: 230 permits; $27 million (more than double the permits issued in 2009)
- Ray: 92 permits; $5 million (36; $0.6 million); cannot expand -- no sewer, water
- Tioga: 95 permits (64 permits)
- Stanley: 108 permits (about double from 2009)
- New Town: 24 permits, $20 million
- Parshall (aka "boomtown"): 13 permits; $0.6 million
- Mountrail County: 100 permits (58 in 2009, which was already a very, very busy year)
- Area lumberyards and other material suppliers will find it difficult to ramp up any more, lack of manpower
- Williston spokesmen: 2011 figures could be higher -- additional homes, commercial, and more hotels
- Williston has $185 million in needed infrastructure improvements; $41 million considered urgent
- ND governor is recommending $20 million in state infrastructure funding to assist Williston
