Cal Klewin of Bowman figures he's in the perfect location to coordinate the northern stretch of a highway project to connect the United States from north to south.

Klewin, formerly Bowman's economic development director, was hired to direct the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway Association with members in North Dakota and South Dakota.

The concept has roots in the old CanAm highway and has been rebirthed as the Great Plains International Trade Corridor.

The Theodore Roosevelt Expressway from Rapid City, S.D., to Canada is one of three stretches of the proposed corridor.

A Ports to Plains Expressway begins in Texas and stretches to Colorado, where it becomes the Heartland Expressway until it connects with the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway in South Dakota.

All three expressway associations are working separately and together as the Great Plains International Trade Corridor to come up with plans - at least in North Dakota's case - to present for highway funding in 2009.

The concept involves turning existing two-lane highways into super two-lane highways, or "super twos" for short.

A super two has generous shoulders, passing lanes, increased load limits if necessary and turnouts at intersections with other high-traffic highways, Klewin said.

Klewin said an improved north-south route through the western plains states "would play a major role in our ability to move goods and commodities out of the plains rather than only east and west."

Critics view the Great Plains corridor and the former CanAm project as a too-easy means for Mexican goods to enter the country and move through to Canada at a net loss to American jobs.

Klewin said the big, scary part of his job is overcoming that thinking and promoting the mindset that North Dakota production and employment - likewise the Great Plains' - would benefit from more efficient and diverse trade access.

Most of the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway, both in North Dakota and South Dakota, would be U.S. Highway 85. On paper, it's 445 miles, with 197 of those in North Dakota, 160 between Rapid City and the North Dakota border and 88 miles in Montana.

The expressway would jog over on Highway 2 to Montana and then north to enter Canada at Raymond, Mont., a portal community with 24-hour service.

It all sounds good, but State Department of Transportation officials say there"s no guarantee it"ll ever happen.

"We've not (built) a super two yet in North Dakota," said Scott Zainhofsky, DOT planning engineer.

As it turns out, though, the northern 80 miles of Highway 85 is undergoing a major traffic operations study by the department to determine whether, among other options, it ought to be improved to a super two road.

If the study indicates a super two is the right decision, it'll be done. If not, it won't, he said.

Even though the study will be complete later this year, it would still be at least four years and probably more before any funding is available.

Zainhofsky said he doesn't know how well developed the project is up and down the plains. He does know that South Dakota has nothing planned yet for its portion of the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway.

What other states do is a "point of interest," but it doesn't dictate North Dakota's scope of highway work, though states do look to provide continuity as highways leave one state and enter another.

Highway 85 is not neglected at any rate.

Starting in 2000 and through 2009, the department will have spent $39 million to maintain, reconstruct and resurface the highway.

Last year's traffic count was between 750 and 2,000 vehicles a day, a typical number for the tier of highways including Highway 85, Highway 2 and Highway 281 and others that are considered interregional highways. Only Interstate 94 carries more traffic, with the exception of some highway systems right around communities.

A major project is in the works now for Highway 85, which carries a good deal of truck and oil traffic in that stretch of North Dakota from Bowman to Williston.

The department is in the midst of an environmental document for a six-mile grading project on the south side of the Long X Bridge, near the entrance to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit.

Estimates peg that project - which could include a climbing, or passing lane, as was constructed north of the bridge - at between $10 million and $12 million.

Road work isn't cheap. Widening shoulders costs $650,000 a mile; total reconstruction costs $1 million a mile.

Zainhofsky said the study of Highway 85 will lead to a decision based on existing traffic conditions.

The department can take normal growth into account, but doesn't have a way to calculate what use of Highway 85 could become if it were part a Great Plains International Trade Corridor.

"We'd need a crystal ball a lot clearer than we have," Zainhofsky said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)