Prairie Road in Box Elder is one phase closer to completition

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Prairie Road in Box Elder is coming closer to completion on the first phase of the construction project.

Phase one of the two-phase road construction project is almost completely finished. Phase one is an extension from Pride Court to Swallow Drive. It involved storm sewer installation, new asphalt and curbing which should help with traffic in the area.

“Running north and south, this roadway does serve a purpose for a lot of the traffic,” said Derek Wingfield, public information officer for the city of Box Elder. “Once this reopens it should lighten up some of the school traffic that we have in the morning which is oftentimes a little bit of a pickle. But the water drainage is a big deal, of course when we get large amounts of water it needs a place to go. And then on the west side if you look there’s new sidewalks so it’s also providing a safer avenue for pedestrian traffic.”

This project has taken longer than initially intended due to some infrastructure that needed to be updated or moved.

“What I was told was some of what caught them off guard here was actually with internet and fiber lines and some of those other utilities that aren’t operated or maintained by the city, but power, gas, internet, cable lines that actually the locates were not necessarily correct so that slowed them down,” continued Wingfield.

Phase two of the project will start on Swallow Drive and head toward 225th Street. There is no official start date for the second phase of the project, but according to Wingfield, phase two should run smoother and be completed faster than phase one.

Copyright 2023 KEVN. All rights reserved.