More Highway 212 construction work through Watertown scheduled for 2022 (Audio)

October 15, 2021
Mike Tanner

WATERTOWN, S.D.–The road construction season is winding down, and as it does, the South Dakota Department of Transportation is already thinking about what’s on their plate for next year.

In Watertown, the big ticket project will be the reconstruction of Highway 212 between Highway 81 and 19th Street East.

That project was originally scheduled for this year, but was pushed back to 2022.

Local DOT Engineer Bryce Olson says they did some below-ground work on that stretch this summer in advance of next summer’s repaving work…

The work that’s done next summer will be almost identical to the reconstruction work that was done on west Highway 212 in 2019, when it was rebuilt between Highways 81 and 20….

There will be five 11-foot wide lanes, with two driving lanes in each directions and a continuous center turn lane.

The west side work two years ago included building a new bridge over the Big Sioux River.

There won’t be any bridges to worry about on the east side construction in 2022, and Olson says that should move the project along more quickly…

Olson says a general contractor for the project will be selected in early December.