When Moorhead’s summer of road and street construction was announced last spring, city traffic engineers and the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s fondest hope was that work would be complete by the time students went back to school.

They’ve come close. Downtown, much of Center Avenue has reopened, along with most of the critical intersection at Main and Eighth in front of the Dairy Queen – likely one of returning college students’ first stops on the steamy first days of fall semester.

The massive interchange and lane realignment project that has cut off drivers seeking to cross Interstate 94 has fallen several weeks behind projections – yet the news there, too, is mostly good. Progress continues on the southbound lanes, though drivers trying to get from north to south still must detour on 20th Street or another route.

North-south traffic across the interchange, including the new diverging diamond pattern, is expected to be restored by Labor Day, according to MnDOT.

So close! Yet the first day of classes at Minnesota State University Moorhead and M State on Monday was still greeted with a great deal of traffic congestion and confusion, due to detours and continuing work on the shoulders of I-94 itself.

Both colleges alerted returning students, faculty and staff to the expected slow-downs via campus-wide email.

David Wahlberg, MSUM’s director of communications and marketing, observes that lighter summer traffic helped employees and students get through the summer. “People have been pretty patient with the inconvenience that comes from a major project like this,” he says.

“The Minnesota Department of Transportation has been great about sharing information that we could pass along to our faculty, staff and students, or with individuals and groups coming in for summer events.”

The first day of class brought some inevitable headaches. “The situation certainly intensified Monday with the start of fall semester classes,” Wahlberg reports. His office sent a campus-wide email advising MSUM-bound drivers try to avoid the tie-ups on the 20th Street ramps. His office suggests taking Exit 2A to Southeast Main Avenue/Highway 52, then looping back to campus on 12th Avenue South.

“We are all pretty anxious for this project to be done,” he says. “We’re going to enjoy the better traffic flows that should come from the newly designed interchange.”

Concordia College students and faculty traveling from out of town get a reprieve from the congestion. There, classes don’t begin until next Thursday, Sept. 1. Spokeswoman Amy Kelly notes that recruiters welcoming prospective out-of-town students over the summer have been taking pains to offer instructions on how to reach the campus most easily.

Of Moorhead’s three colleges, M State has experienced the most direct impact from construction. Yet after classes began this week, Dean of Students Shawn Anderson reports that access to the campus – located at the corner of the busy 20th Street detour between 24th and 28th Avenues South – has proceeded fairly smoothly.

“M State is a little different in that all of our students are commuters, along with the staff,” Anderson explains. “The biggest impact has been on those who come from the west. With 20th Street so busy, we’ve suggested using exit 2A to Southeast Main Avenue, crossing over, re-entering I-94, and then circling back to use the new Eighth Street ramp. It’s a little longer, but it’s probably faster, especially at the busiest times of the day.”

He estimates about 2,500 faculty and staff travel to the campus every day. Not all, of course, are driving their own cars. MATBUS’s U-Pass permits those with student IDs to ride to classes. Others carpool or bike.

“MnDOT has been as helpful as they possibly could be,” he says. “Their weekly construction updates have kept us in the know, and we’ve been able to advise people accordingly.”

About the later-than-projected completion, Anderson is philosophical. “Weather always complicates predicting these things. What we’re hearing now is that it will be completed by late September or early October. That’s really pretty good for a project as large as this one.

“Ultimately, it’s going to be very good for all of us.”