Part of 52nd Avenue South to Close March 1st for Construction

Drivers will be detoured around the construction zone on 45th Street South or Veterans Boulevard

February 28, 2019

FARGO, N.D. — They say there’s two seasons in our region: winter and construction, and the two collide tomorrow.

Construction on 52nd Avenue South will be the biggest road project many businesses and drivers in the area have had to deal with.

52nd Avenue will be closed to thru traffic from 47th Street to 53rd Street. Drivers will be detoured around the construction zone on 45th Street South or Veterans Boulevard.

Two new bridges over a drain are designed to relieve congestion and add other updates like new storm sewer and street lighting.

“When you come out here at night, it’s awfully dark, you get the stop light at the corner, which is a huge pain, anybody that’s trying to get out on 52nd at 5 o’clock, you sit there for quite a while and it’s kind of a daring little dart out onto 52nd, so I think it’ll definitely be worth it when it’s done,” Kristi Brixby, owner of Fargo Antiques and Repurposed Market, said.

“It’ll serve the needs of the future too, as we look 20–30 years out. We’re going to need something like this down there,” Kevin Gorder, division engineer for the City of Fargo, said.

Engineers say the goal is to transform the rural two–lane road to an urban four–lane road.

“I was more surprised that they’re going to close it completely. You’d think there’d be a better alternative to at least let people one lane through,” Brixby said.

“For the commuter, you just need to add more time,” Gorder said.

Some business owners say they’re taking it upon themselves to make sure customers are still coming in despite the road closure.

“We’re trying to come up with different fun things for people to do to make it worth their while to come out,” Brixby said.

“The reality is the foot traffic will decrease in some way because it’ll be more inconvenient, but we’re hoping those regular people that normally come here still do,” Maren Gemar, executive director of HERO, said.

Both HERO and Fargo Antiques are turning to social media to keep customers flowing in. Fargo Antiques says they will be having open–during–construction sales throughout the summer.

The first phase of the $19.2 million project is expected to be finished in August. The entire 52nd Avenue South reconstruction is expected to be done in October.