New Williston ByPass Starting To Take Shape -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Okay, finally, I think I understand where the Truck Reliever Route, the new bypass around Williston will go.

The interesting thing is that the roads are pretty much all there right now, and once the project starts, it could move along quite quickly.  It's a huge project.

So, this is the current proposed route (link is now broken), as I understand it.

Start at the 4-mile corner west of Williston. [This corner is four miles west Williston, where US Highway 2 continues west, and intersects with US Highway 85 running north - south.]

Trucks coming from the south on US Highway 85 will no longer turn east on Highway 2 into Williston. Rather, they will continue straight north. If, indeed, it goes straight north from the 4-mile corner, a new road will have to be built.

Trucks will continue north until they reach County Road 6 where they turn east to cross US Highway 2, also known as the Epping turn-off. Trucks will continue east on County Road 6 toward Springbook/Epping, until they reach County Road 9. Turning south on County Road 9, they will continue until they reach State Highway 1804 east of Williston.  This is a few miles east of the huge industrial parks for Sanjel, Halliburton, and Schlumberger. (Schlumberger is building a new complex west of Williston.)

The new truck stop / Bakken Industrial Park will be at the intersection of Highway 2 and the Epping turn-off, which I have blogged about often.

You know, as I write this, it is incredible the number of major projects on the drawing board and/or already in progress.

Below, I reference "men" building things. It should be noted that there are a lot of women working in the oil patch at all levels. I've seen a few driving trucks; I think I mentioned the woman driving heavy equipment widening the road south of Williston. I know there are a lot of women running the family business that started out as a "mom-and-pop" operation and now has expanded beyond anyone's imagination.

But, I digress, here's a laundry list of things I think about ....

1. The new bypass -- huge
2. The new Bakken Industrial Park -- huge truck stop four miles north of Williston -- this alone is going to amaze local residents; a huge man-camp is already there; a lot of the men there will be building the park
3. The Sandy Creek Retail Center with two new hotels, Menard's, convention center
4. The 2,200 unit (or thereabouts) Harvest Hills subdivision northwest of Williston being builtby Kiewit (Granite Peak), Knife River (MDU)
5. The new BHI supersite being built
6. The new Schlumberger complex
7. The new Hexom complex
8. The $150 million northwest water authority project
9. Seven or eight new hotels in past year or so, and more being built
10. The new three-story clinic across the bypass from the hospital
11. The addition to the hospital, currently a new Ambulatory Care Center/Birthing Center, to be followed by a Cancer Center after this project is complete
12. The new hotel next to the hospital
13. The huge new McCody Concrete complex
14. Too many new steel buildings to count
15. The incredibly nice-looking, brand-new series of buildings on the east side of US Highway 85 south of 4-Mile Corner -- whoever put that together deserves a huge thank you from the city of Williston; they present a very attractive impression as folks drive into the area
16. This is the one thing that Williams County is missing -- (as are Dunn, McKenzie, and Mountrail): each county should have huge billboards announcing that folks are now entering "the Bakken. Hardhats required."
17. By the way, just a reminder, Oasis has a permit for an oil well inside city limits on the southwest side, near the Midway Bar

For a list of projects back in the summer of 2010, click here. In hindsight, it's a very small list -- if we only knew then what we know now.....