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Engineering, DOT officials discuss hospital frontage road with public

By Sue Sitter - | Sep 24, 2022

Officials with the North Dakota Department of Transportation point to a drawing of a proposed frontage road extending to the future site of the new Heart of America Medical Center.

Officials with the North Dakota Department of Transportation held an informal public input session on a project to extend a frontage road eastward on U.S. Highway 2 on Sept. 13 at the Rugby Armory.

Several city council members attended together with North Dakota District 14 Representative Jon Nelson and Pierce County Commissioner Dave Bednarz. Nelson also represents Ward 1 on the Rugby City Council.

No members of the public attended the session for its first hour.

Officials from the NDDOT and Moore Engineering, the firm heading up the project, stood ready to answer questions. Plans include extending a frontage road on the north side of the highway and closing off an existing access to the highway from 6th Ave. Southeast.

The frontage road project would improve access and traffic flow toward the site of a new Heart of America Medical Center facility on the east end of Rugby.

“The pad is actually being prepared as we speak,” Dylan Dunn of Moore Engineering said of the progress being made for the new hospital site.

“This (road project) is to create an access for that hospital and create a safer access to the highway,” he added.

Dunn said the project would be paid primarily by the National Department of Transportation, with that agency contributing 80% of the funds, and 20% paid by local governments.

“The high-end estimate is about $850,000, but when we get further into design, that number may come down,” Dunn said of the project’s total cost. “Unknowns usually come in the high number, but once you refine it down, you get to a tighter number,” he added. “Sometimes it goes up, but I’m anticipating this will probably come down a little bit.

“The $850,000 is the entire project cost,” Dunn added.

Dunn said of the informal question-and-answer session, “As part of the DOT process, we have to do a public input meeting and public involvement report as part of our environmental clearances. This is one of the steps to gather input for this project and any other project the DOT does to understand if there’s a concern from the public and document those as far as mitigating any hazards or concerns.”

Dunn added, “Construction should go next summer. We’re bidding it sometime in March or April, and hopefully, it’s built next summer. It shouldn’t take too long. It should be finished before the hospital’s finished.”

Rugby City Council member Neil Lotvedt said of the project, “It’s an absolute necessity for safety. It will help traffic in the residential area by closing that entrance from 6th Avenue, which is much too close to 5th Avenue. That’s a safety concern, and I think that’s why the Department of Transportation is paying 80% of the cost.”

Lotvedt noted Pierce County has agreed to contribute $150,000 toward the 20%. The City of Rugby has also included $163,000 for the frontage road project in its 2023 budget.

Lotvedt said the City of Rugby would assume responsibility for storm sewer infrastructure to the north of the property on 15th Street, which will extend eastward, but not be paved.

“The city will own the street and water line,” he added. “The city must own it, in my opinion. We don’t want it to be on private property.

“We’re taking the stormwater out of the retaining pond, north to the storm sewer in the Chalmers Addition,” he added.

The hospital will also tie onto the city’s sanitary sewer system, according to Lotvedt.

He noted the sanitary sewer line “will be going toward the county shop and tie onto the Haaland Home, with all the new line going out to the lagoons.”

“That’s why we didn’t special assess it and we bonded it, because it serves a lot of the town and everybody ties onto it,” he said. “I’m kind of against special assessments when it comes to things like this.”