Construction underway on Theodore Roosevelt National Park road repairs

The 6-mile project is so far on schedule, according to Park Superintendent Angie Richman. Contractors are building retaining walls.

Plans also include drainage improvements, such as underground inlets, culverts, and curb and gutter to carry away stormwater, and rehabilitation of several stone-arch culverts.

Five parking areas will be reconstructed and modified with expanded walkways, bench seating and wayside exhibits. Four other roadside pull-outs will be repaved, too.

The park is aiming to reopen the road to visitor traffic in fall 2024 "if weather conditions and other factors hold," Richman said. 

The project has $39 million of federal money from the Great American Outdoors Act, which aims to address deferred maintenance in national parks and other outdoor sites.

About 4 miles of the 36-mile scenic loop drive has been closed since May 2019 due to slumping, sinkholes and road movement in the erosive Badlands. The project encompasses more miles of roadway than were initially closed.

Visitors can still travel most of the park's scenic drive, which is closed for the reconstruction project from the junction near Peaceful Valley Ranch to the Old East Entrance Station parking area. Motorists must turn around at the latter.

Park officials expect minimal impacts to motorists from the project. Road construction vehicles will be traveling to the worksite in the normal flow of traffic, Deputy Superintendent Maureen McGee-Ballinger said.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park logged 668,679 recreation visits last year.