Mobridge Road Soon To Have Destination

Mobridge's road to nowhere is about to lead to somewhere.

The community has been working on an eleven year goal to extend Main Street down to the Missouri riverfront. But railroad tracks have been in the way. Crews are now taking care of that.

"We've been working for a long time for this to happen and finally it is going to," business owner Tammy Schanzenbach said.

"We're pretty excited that it's not going to be a road to nowhere for very much longer," Mobridge Chamber of Commerce’s Michele Harrisone said.

The city's goal has been to connect Main Street with a road along the Missouri and then develop the riverfront. The project passed a public vote and the city finished parts of it.

Railroad tracks without a crossing prevented the roads from connecting, leaving the project in limbo for years.

Some question whether the project should have been started in the first place, saying they think the money would have been better spent elsewhere. But those who support it say they're hopeful it'll pay the community back.

"It's been dubbed the road to nowhere. Well, it'll lead to unlimited potential for Mobridge and the surrounding area," business owner Rick Christman said.

Community leaders have studied different river front development options ranging from entertainment to housing and anything in between.

"And I'm also hoping it's going to bring new business into our community," Schanzenbach said.

Supporters expect that to start taking shape now that a mid-October completion date has been set.

BNSF Railway tries to minimize the number of crossings over its tracks. So to get the Main Street crossing, Mobridge had to give up another crossing on the east end of town.