With dirt road only way in and out until road work is done small town remains eerily quiet

ALEXANDER, N.D. -- Tobacco Depot owner Phil Hamda was looking forward to the truck bypass west of Alexander, but after it opened last month his business took a hit.

About 12,000 vehicles traveled on U.S. Highway 85 through Alexander in North Dakota’s Oil Patch each day - that is until the bypass opened Sept. 21 with little fanfare, a lot of confusion, and it was eerily quiet, City Auditor Brittni Kawcak said Friday.

The north entry from U.S. Highway 85 into Alexander, which sits between the much larger towns of Williston and Watford City, had been closed. The only way for residents and visitors to access Alexander from the bypass was via 29th Street N.W. or County Road 20, a dirt road.

Kawcak said a North Dakota Department of Transportation representative emailed her prior to Sept. 21 to say the bypass might happen over the weekend, however, neither she nor Mayor Jerry Hatter knew when.

“I had a little bit of a head’s up, but no specific day,” Kawcak said Friday.

When the bypass opened on that late Sunday afternoon, she said Hatter called her asking how to get out of town so that he could take his son to Trenton.

“The first day was shocking,” Kawcak said, adding she’s “ecstatic” about the bypass but thinks the state could have done a better job of communication.

Work began on the $28 million Alexander truck bypass project in May and the project is expected to be completed by mid-October depending on weather, said Katie Pizza, public information officer for the Williston District Department of Transportation.

Widening of U.S. Highway 85 between Williston and Watford City began last year. The final phase of the 3.7-mile bypass project will include fully-paved entrance roadways into Alexander at each end of the bypass, she said.

Pizza said electronic signs have been placed on both sides of the bypass to help motorists know where to turn onto County Road 20 to access Alexander.

“The message boards were placed back previously, but then moved closer to the turn to make people aware where they should be turning,” she said.

With the procession of trucks, honking and sirens no longer an issue, the town that has seen its population more than quintuple to about 1,100 people since 2010 is quiet once again.

“Solid traffic, non-stop, 24/7 when we first came. You couldn’t cross the street - cars, semis, trailers,” said Rugged Butte Inn manager Dottie Lipe, who moved to Alexander on Sept. 3. “All the sudden it’s quiet, it was really quite a change.”

Lipe said the opening of the bypass has not affected business, though some customers with reservations didn’t know how to get into Alexander.

Hamda said his smoke shop, which opened in February, has lost a third of its clientele and lamented the lack of information and oversight.

Hi-Way Lounge and Grill owner Shelley Hayes said the Monday after the bypass opened was “dead,” but by that night, people had figured out how to get into town and business picked up.

“A little girl who goes to school here said ‘It’s so quiet without the traffic you can sit in the middle of the road,’” Hayes said.

Pizza acknowledged the immediate challenges for the town and its businesses.

“We do appreciate everyone’s patience. We do have the finish line in sight.”