Jill Schramm/MDN Ward County Highway Engineer Dana Larsen speaks to the Ward County Commission Tuesday. From left are Jim Rostad, Ron Merritt and John Fjeldahl.

The third time could either be the charm or the final out in Ward County’s effort to land a federal grant to begin design of a proposed southwest transportation corridor around Minot.

Both the Ward County Commission on Tuesday and Minot City Council on Monday approved jointly spending $9,500 to have a consultant prepare an application for a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant. The grant would fund the estimated $2 million to $3 million environmental study for the initial phases of the corridor. Covering about 30% of project design, the environmental document would help to identify the final alignment and the necessary property acquisitions.

The county’s application finished high but just out of the money twice previously. The city and county have spent about $38,000 on consultants to prepare past applications.

Ward County Highway Engineer Dana Larsen told the county commission that new data will be needed for another application round, requiring the assistance of the consultant, Bolton & Menk.

“There’s no way I could promise that it will be more successful,” Larsen said, noting the goal is to improve the application based on the federal input on previous applications.

“As far as the application being successful, we can only make our application better,” he added. “If we’re not successful this time, and we still score very highly, we might have to look for an alternative way to finish this design.”

He said other federal funding programs might be available or there could be an attempt at another grant request through the Central Dakota Metropolitan Planning Organization, the newly formed transportation planning group for the Minot area.

“We do need to keep trying,” Commissioner Jim Rostad said, citing the increasing traffic on County Road 17. “I think it’s mandatory that we keep the process going.”

Phase one includes work along County Road 17 from its intersection with U.S. Highway 2 & 52 to County Road 14. The county is looking at starting improvements on County Road 17, not waiting to see what happens with a RAISE grant, due to increasing traffic and safety concerns.

“We have an intersection improvement schedule for 2026-2027 at the intersection of County Roads 17 and 14, which would be just a few miles west of the hospital,” Larsen said. The county also has been talking with the North Dakota Department of Transportation about intersection improvements at U.S. 2 & 52 and CR 17.

The corridor’s Phase 2 includes intersection options of U.S. Highway 2 & 52 with the U.S. Highway 83 Bypass or with Burdick Expressway West, which will be one of the most expensive pieces of the corridor, Larsen said. He said that phase is best handled by the state, with the city and county as supporting entities. From there, the corridor would continue to County Road 14, while future phases include options for continuing to the south and east.

Larsen said even if a RAISE grant is obtained, local funds likely will be needed to get further design work done. However, the most costly design piece is the first phase, he said, and the entities can seek another RAISE grant for construction.

“The only way to get this really done is the state, city and county working together to build this project that does impact all three entities, and the cost is going to be very spendy,” Larsen said.

He estimated a federal decision could be made on the county’s RAISE grant application by the end of May.