The U.S. Interstate Highway System is the biggest civil-engineering project in world history – 46,876 miles in length. It was funded with gasoline taxes and cost about $129 billion dollars. Construction began in the late-1950s and continued through 1977. The system linked Americans from coast-to-coast and cut the cost of shipping goods. North Dakotans have zipped along its two interstate highways daily for over fifty years.
Every state is supposed to have an east-west interstate and a north-south interstate. In North Dakota, it’s Interstate 94 from Fargo to the Montana line, and Interstate 29 from Pembina to South Dakota.
The design requirements were simple – being able to handle speeds of 50 to 70 miles per hour; a minimum of two lanes in each direction; 12-foot-wide lanes with a 10-foot-wide right paved shoulder, and 4-foot-wide left paved shoulder. The key element, however, was requiring these highways to be limited-access roads. With few entrance and exit points, they proved far safer than highways with intersections and rail crossings.
The arrival of interstate highways brought major changes. North Dakotans became increasingly dependent upon their cars, pickup trucks and semi-truck trailers, which led to a decline in railway passenger traffic. The quick transportation helped give rise to shopping malls and suburbs.
These changes came especially to Fargo, where I-94 and I-29 cross. Bypassing the central business district caused downtown Fargo to lose business. The West Acres shopping area, which is near the intersection, gained prominence. And West Fargo grew as a sort-of-suburb along the I-94 corridor.
It was on this date in 1967 that the Grand Forks Herald noted that I-94 had become the “heaviest traveled of N.D. roads,” with the “stretch of Interstate 94 which links Bismarck and Fargo” rated as the state’s busiest highway.
As the Fargo-Moorhead metro area has grown in the past 20 years, to nearly 240,000 people, Interstate 94’s traffic has proliferated. Both I-94 and I-29 now have 3 lanes in each direction.
Who knows? As Fargo expands maybe terms like “gridlock” and “traffic jams” and four-lanes in both directions may happen – someday.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck, MSU Moorhead History Department.
Sources:
“94 Heaviest Traveled of N.D. Roads,” Grand Forks Herald, June 7, 1967, p. 17.
“20 Miles of Interstate to Open,” Minot Daily News, August 23, 1961, p. 1.
“Byrd Terms Ike’s Highway Program ‘Pure Pork Barrel,’” Bismarck Tribune, February 23, 1955, p. 13.
“Work on I-29 in Fargo Area Proceeding on Schedule,” Fargo Forum, May 23, 1965, p. C-7.
T.A. Heppenheimer, “The Rise of the Interstates,” American Heritage of Invention & Technology 7, no. 2, Fall 1991: 8-18.
U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, “Summary of the extent, usage, and condition of the U.S. Interstate System,” https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstatebrief2011/; “Highway History: FAQs,” and “Interstate System: Design,” https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/interstate.cfm, accessed on May 5, 2018.
