Mandan Highway Being Permanently Reduced From Four Lanes To Two.

There's the "road diet" on West Main Street! There's the roundabout on Collins!

Now, what the heck is going on with Highway 1806?

Mandan's going to bear the brunt of some major road work this summer. Memorial Highway (The Strip) is going to begin a years-long project starting in 2022. You can peek at the apocalyptic story I wrote about that by clicking here.

The entire NDDOT evil empire plan can also be found by clicking here

That's all happening in the near future, but what's happening right now in south Mandan? It's the same sorta thing that happened on West Main Street in Mandan as well as Main Avenue in downtown Bismarck. It's called a road diet and its use in communities across the country continues to rise. The old "antiquated" notion that more lanes mean smoother traffic has more and more been put on this "diet".

A Road Diet, or roadway reconfiguration, can improve safety, calm traffic, provide better mobility and access for all road users, and enhance overall quality of life.

A Road Diet typically involves converting an existing four-lane undivided roadway to a three-lane roadway consisting of two through lanes and a center two-way left-turn lane (TWLTL).

So 1806 heading south out of Mandan will soon be one north lane and one south lane. Currently, there are two lanes heading in both directions. What has definitely been missing on this stretch of road is left-turn lanes. People weaving in and out of traffic may not be paying attention to that sitting duck vehicle waiting to make a left turn. So by adding that turn lane you minimize the chances of a fairly high-speed rear end collision.

The good news is that road diets don't cost much.

The plan pretty much uses existing roadways. It would be helpful that when you implement the lane changes you're prepared to immediately re-stripe the roadway so we know where we're supposed to go. I'm still not sure if Main Avenue Bismarck has fully finished striping...it did take a long time.