By BART PFANKUCH/South Dakota News WatchSouth Dakota News Watch

Kristen Kilcoin has experienced the good and the bad of the nearly three-year project to rebuild and widen a long stretch of U.S. 385, the only major north-south highway through the central Black Hills.

As the owner and operator of Three Forks Campground, located at the intersection of U.S. highways 385 and 16 just south of Hill City, Kilcoin has seen a slight reduction in patrons during the past two tourism seasons.

“Some tourists were afraid to use the road because it was hit-or-miss whether it would be closed or if they would hit delays from a pilot car,” she said.

And yet, Kilcoin sees clear upsides to the construction and its anticipated results.

In an unexpected windfall, her campground and RV park is hosting several U.S. 385 construction workers who are providing a significant off-season revenue boost. She also is encouraged by the look and feel of the sections of the highway that have already been completed.

“It’s going to be really nice, and safer for people driving it,” she said. “There’s a couple places where you don’t even recognize it is the same road.”

Adding space to increase safety

The $72 million highway rebuild that began in 2024 will widen and enhance safety on a 15-mile stretch of the narrow, winding two-lane highway that flows amid scenic lakes, rock walls and dramatic ridge lines but which also has a high rate of crashes and fatalities.

Construction will include widening of road shoulders, smoothing out of sharp curves, adding turn lanes and softening off-road slopes to make the road safer. The construction route runs from Sheridan Lake on the south to the Pennington-Lawrence county line on the north.

Making room for wider lanes has required the use of dynamite blasts and removal of jagged rocks and huge boulders by giant construction excavators.

The highway forms a critical transportation pipeline through the Black Hills, running from Lead-Deadwood on the north to the Nebraska state line on the south.

Along the way, it provides access to Hill City, Custer and Hot Springs and is a popular drive for Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attendees. It enables access to Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park. And it helps fuel a regional tourism industry that brought nearly $2 billion in revenue to South Dakota in 2024.

Seeking to cut accidents by 50%

The overall crash rate on the stretch of highway being rebuilt is more than double the state average, according to DOT data.

In the five-year period from 2018-2022, 187 crashes were reported, with four fatalities and 57 injuries. A third of those wrecks and most of the deaths occurred when motorists left the roadway, which in spots has almost no shoulder space while closely abutting rock walls or rimming atop significant drop-offs.

The DOT’s goal is to cut the crash rate on the segment of highway by 50%, largely by eliminating tight curves, expanding sight lines for motorists or expanding shoulders from 2 to 8 feet, which has a proven success rate in reducing run-off wrecks.

The project is well into its second major phase and now includes a full road closure south of Pactola Reservoir, the final of five closures that require motorists to make a 40-mile detour through Rapid City.

Many Black Hills businesses have reported slower sales during the project that will reach full completion in 2027. The project has also created transportation challenges for area residents, schools and emergency services, though many locals are aware of work-around routes that enable them to avoid the long delays of the posted detours.

On schedule and on budget (so far)

The construction project has required major planning, coordination and resources of the South Dakota Department of Transportation and a wide range of local and regional agencies.

To date, the work being done by Oftedal Construction of Miles City, Montana, has run smoothly with no major delays or injuries to workers reported, said Tim Wicks, the DOT engineer overseeing the project.

“As of now, we are on schedule and very happy with the progress,” Wicks told News Watch. “We’ve had some additional costs that often happen with these kinds of projects, but nothing major.”

Wicks said motorists who want to see how the highway will look when complete can drive the section north of Pactola Reservoir to the Lawrence County line, where lanes are widened, shoulders expanded and the pavement is resurfaced.

“The shoulders are wider and the slopes are gentler in case you do run off the road,” Wicks said. “We’re not going to stop every accident, but you’ll have a better chance to avoid it or it will become much less severe.”

Removal of rock ridges a big challenge

The most challenging and labor-intensive part of the construction project has been removing giant boulders and slashing away rocky ridges to make way for a wider road surface, Wicks said.

On a recent day in January, a large excavator could be seen using its clawed bucket to chip away at a vertical rock wall on the west side of the highway north of Sheridan Lake.

At the same time, dump trucks carried away rocks and boulders while trucks with two side-dump trailers added fill dirt to build up the road and shoulder surfaces.

Chopping down a Black Hills ridge must begin at the top because starting at the bottom would create a rocky avalanche risk, Wicks said.

In a process known as “pioneering,” workers clear trees and rocks to build a path to the top of the ridges where construction equipment and dynamite blasts are used to remove rock and form edges.

“You don’t just fly up there and land on the top,” he said “You have to build a road to get there.”

After that, ground-level excavators can then safely chip away at the edges to create space.

“Otherwise, you would undermine the surface and it would all land on top of you,” Wicks said.

2026 goal: Open for Sturgis rally traffic

One big goal for 2026 is to have the road fully open to traffic during the annual Sturgis rally in early August.

As reported by News Watch, U.S. 385 was open during the 2024 rally, but the construction project left the road surface uneven and gravely in spots, which increased the risk of cycles to slide down.

Wicks said the road surfaces will be smooth and the speed limit should be the typical 55 mph during the 2026 rally.

“That’s still weather-dependent, and issues do pop up. But it should be completely free-flowing traffic during the rally,” Wicks said.

The bulk of the road construction and rebuilding should be completed in 2026, with only some final road surfacing to be completed in 2027, Wicks said.

“It’s all being done for safety,” he said.

This story was originally published by South Dakota News Watch and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

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