Reconstructed road opens grand views at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Shut down for more than six years, part of a scenic road loop in North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park reopened Tuesday, giving visitors a better opportunity to see wildlife and panoramic views of the rugged Badlands.

The park’s 21-mile (34-kilometer) loop encircles a stark landscape where the 26th president wandered as a young man in the 1880s. The area includes colorful bluffs, dramatic formations from erosion and petrified tree stumps. Visitors enjoy encountering prairie dogs, bison and wild horses on the road.

Although the road officially opened Tuesday, wintry weather left crews working to clear snow and ice.

Storms, the erosive landscape and aging infrastructure caused a 150-foot (45-meter) section of roadway to slump in spring 2019, with sinkholes and other problems occurring later on the road, the National Park Service said. Since then, visitors have had to turn around at a certain point, unable to see views such as Scoria Point Overlook, a vista of red rock and rolling hills.

“It’s a nice, scenic place. It’s been missed,” said Chris Kman, a local souvenir shop owner who also leads park tours.

Scoria Point is one of her top spots in the park, the site of her favorite photo with her husband. A popular nature trail is nearby. The road closure later enveloped another pull-off, Badlands Overlook, with a view where “the sky goes on forever,” Kman said.

Construction lasted about two and a half years on a 6-mile (10-kilometer) closed segment, ending in October.

The work encompassed full road reconstruction, drainage improvements, slope reconstruction and grading, and pavement resurfacing, the Park Service said.

“There’s just an incredible amount of engineering that’s gone into it because you’re building this road on the side of these steep bluffs,” said U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who cosponsored key legislation and helped secure funding for the project.

Visitors will see stone riprap, wire suspension and concrete work holding the road in place and blending into the natural terrain, he said.

The project cost about $51 million, almost entirely funded from the Great American Outdoors Act, which supports national parks’ and public lands’ deferred maintenance needs.

The closed road segment dates to the Great Depression, when the Civilian Conservation Corps developed the area that became the national park. The scenic loop was completed in 1968.

The road project needed more money because of continuing failures of the soil under the road, contract bids higher than budget estimates and erosive storms, the park service said. Long winters and short summers limited construction, and rain and winter weather took a toll as well, the agency said.

Fully opening the loop road means the park will be completely accessible when the nearby Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library holds its grand opening July 4. Organizers expect the library, once opened, will draw hundreds of thousands of people.

“The next thing that they’re going to want to do, if they haven’t already done it, is to go through the park,” library spokesperson Matt Briney said.

More than 700,000 visitors a year see the park, North Dakota’s top tourist attraction.