Updates
Later, 11:15 p.m.: in the comments below, I reference the Lewis and Clark bridge south of Williston. Here is a nice website regarding that bridge.
Original Post
Steffes is a Dickinson-based steel company. Among its products: cattle guards. I think I blogged about cattle guards two years ago. Wrong. Last May, 2011.
Near the bottom of the article, just to remind us how lucrative the Bakken is:
A company working in a similar market is Diverse Energy Systems of Grafton [North Dakota] which was Lean Technologies until its purchase by the Houston-based company.
I have to give the Dickinson Press credit when they do positive articles about North Dakota and its incredible economy.
ReplyDeleteThe old east vs the west should not be part of the discussion. The west certainly knows they can not accomplish all this development by themselves and rely on in-state as will as out of state for their needed contributions.
The old east vs the west probably has more to do with old politics rather than the business reality of today.
Yes, the Dickinson Press is the most oil-centric daily newspaper in the state as far as I can tell. The Williston Herald and the Bismarck Tribune provide incredible annual or more frequent "special editions."
DeleteIt is interesting to watch the story of North Dakota unfold. Without a charismatic leader, the state will tend to grow without "direction" -- with no sense of what North Dakota should be like 20 years out.
Even such "little" things as to where to build a bridge across a little river in southwest North Dakota becomes a major issue, and will probably be decided before a strategic plan for the state has been developed.
I think back on the bridge south of Williston across the Missouri. It was a huge, huge deal when it was completed, and it is a no-nonsense bridge that replaced a bridge that truly needed replacing. But, now looking back, how much more would it have cost to make it four lanes wide, and could the state have afforded it at the time? Before the Bakken boom is over, that bridge will a) become a chokepoint that needs replacing; and/or b) need significant "repair" with all the truck traffic.
But, as I often say, chaos is self organizing.