Eastbound Lanes of I-90 near Sturgis to Open in Time for Rally
With Sturgis getting ready to kickstart the 2023 version of the motorcycle rally in just a matter of days, the South Dakota Department of Transportation has also been cruising to get a stretch of road construction on I-90 near Sturgis open again by rally time.
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally officially gets underway later this week, and that means residents throughout South Dakota will be seeing lots, and lots, and lots of bikes on city streets and highways throughout the state.
Motorcycle enthusiasts will be flooding into South Dakota over the coming days for the 2023 version of the Sturgis Rally which runs August 4-13th.
The good news for bikers, I-90 in and around the Sturgis rally area should be fully functional by that time.
Dakota News Now is reporting that a stretch of I-90 near Sturgis has been under construction since well before summer started, and a portion of the highway has been operating under two-lane traffic conditions for several weeks. However, the South Dakota Department of Transportation plans to have the eastbound lanes of I-90 near the Sturgis area operational again to help improve traffic flow brought on by the rally.
Mike Carlson, an engineer with the Department of Transportation told Dakota News Now, “We’ve had over 40 days that have been impacted by the weather on that project, however, the contractor and our personnel have done very well at working extremely hard, especially the last couple of weeks since it quit raining, getting back on track again so we’re pretty much on track as to getting the road open before the rally.”
Road construction crews have been double-timing it over the past several weeks in anticipation of the upcoming rally.
According to Dakota News Now, they plan to return to the job site once the rally wraps up and traffic conditions begin to subside.
But, until that time, rallygoers should have smooth sailing on I-90 as they approach the Sturgis area.
The I-90 construction project won't be officially completed until sometime in late October.
Source: Dakota News Now