The North Dakota Department of Transportation will take bids this week on a 25-mile section of concrete overlay on U.S. 2 in Williams County, one of the big four oil producing counties in northwest North Dakota. The project will consist of 359,400 square yards of 8-inch concrete overlay and miscellaneous full-depth sections at turning lanes. The doweled 8-inch concrete overlay will be built on milled asphalt with 14-foot panel lengths. Department engineers reduced the design from traditional reconstruction thicknesses of 13-inches, resulting in significant savings. Discussions have noted that overlay technologies have become the new normal for concrete pavement options.

Oil field highways in North Dakota are attracting about 90 percent of the total construction expenditures generated through oil taxes and allocated for transportation improvements by the legislature. A $2.5 billion biennial transportation appropriations bill is currently moving through committee. The U.S. 2 project will consume in excess of 20,000 tons of cementious materials.