Link here to the Minot Daily News:
Although Alexander's traffic is often bumper-to-bumper, the number of semis on the road remains on the increase throughout western North Dakota. A count of on-coming semis conducted one morning last week was 138 from N.D. Highway 83 to New Town, 161 from New Town to Watford City and 97 from Watford City to Alexander, a distance of 20 miles. The number of rigs on the road increases substantially late in the day every day. Add in all the support trucks, pick-ups, school buses and regular traffic and the roadways are jammed dangerously full.
Raymond Nadolny, Williston State College president, said Williston will soon outgrow West Fargo and become the state's fifth-largest city. He said he wouldn't be surprised if Williston's population reaches 60,000 in five years. The city, located about 20 miles north of Alexander, ranked ninth in the state with fewer than 15,000 residents in 2010.
Within the Bakken, there are several areas of increased concentration:
- New Town, Parshall: Parshall and Sanish oil fields
- Tioga, Stanley: oil and natural gas hubs; Hess regional headquarters
- Epping, Wheelock: new major truck stop; truck reliever route; some huge wells
- Williston: major industrial park for the entire Bakken
- Trenton-Dore-Fairview: new diesel refinery; oil-loading facilities
- Alexander, Watford City: the bull's eye of the Bakken; where peak activity will be in 2012
- Belfield: yet to experience full impact
- Dickinson: hard to say exactly how much impact
- Minot: could become center of activity for Spearfish formation
Perhaps I'm just too close to Alexander, but everything suggests Alexander is going to be most impacted this next summer. There is no bypass around the town; there is a single thoroughfare through the town -- that road, US Highway 2 connects the industrial parks west Williston with Watford City.
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