US 385 Safety Improvements project in South Dakota gets $65+ million grant to help meet rural transportation and mobility needs

The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a $66.7 million ($66,743,607) in monies from the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program for the US 385 Safety Improvements project in Pennington County.

The work includes constructing approximately 15 miles of highway safety improvements on US 385 from Sheridan Lake to the Pennington/Lawrence County Line. Improvements include widening the shoulder, providing a 30-foot clear zone, addressing deficient horizontal and vertical curves, replacing four major drainage structures, installing two grade separated trail crossings, replacing and extending drainage pipes and surfacing.

US 385 is the principal north-south route through the Black Hills. This improvement project will also improve access to a variety of recreational sites such as the Black Hills National Forest, National Parks/National Park Service Monuments and South Dakota State Park sites. This project will address deficiencies that have contributed to a high number of automobile and motorcycle crashes in segments of the project area.

This is one of 18 projects receiving a total of $645.3 million to help communities around the United States complete transportation projects that will increase mobility, improve safety, and generate regional economic growth in rural areas.

Rural roads face a disproportionally high rate of fatalities, and a significant proportion of rural roads and bridges are in poor condition. USDOT says these grants will improve the safety and reliability of movement of people and freight, as well as improve quality of life for rural residents, through investment in critical roads, bridges and other transportation systems.

This is the second year for the Rural Program, which invests a total of approximately $2 billion through 2026 for projects that improve highways, bridges, and tunnels, address highway safety, increase access to agricultural, commercial, energy, or freight facilities, and bring flexible transit services to rural and Tribal areas. More information and a full list of this year’s Rural grant recipients are available on the US DOT website.