BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Shut down for more than six years, part of a scenic road loop in North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park will reopen Tuesday, giving visitors a better opportunity to see wildlife and panoramic views of the rugged Badlands.
The park's 21-mile (34-kilometer) loop encircles a stark landscape where the 26th president wandered as a young man in the 1880s. The area includes colorful bluffs, dramatic formations from erosion and petrified tree stumps. Visitors enjoy encountering prairie dogs, bison and wild horses on the road.
Storms, the erosive landscape and aging infrastructure caused a 150-foot (45-meter) section of roadway to slump in spring 2019, with sinkholes and other problems occurring later on the road, the National Park Service said. Since then, visitors have had to turn around at a certain point, unable to see views such as Scoria Point Overlook, a vista of red rock and rolling hills.
“It's a nice, scenic place. It's been missed,” said Chris Kman, a local souvenir shop owner who also leads park tours.
Scoria Point is one of her top spots in the park, the site of her favorite photo with her husband. A popular nature trail is nearby. The road closure later enveloped another pull-off, Badlands Overlook, with a view where “the sky goes on forever,” Kman said.
The road is scheduled to reopen Tuesday, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven said. Construction lasted about two and a half years on a 6-mile (10-kilometer) closed segment, ending in October.
The work encompassed full road reconstruction, drainage improvements, slope reconstruction and grading, and pavement resurfacing, the Park Service said.
“There's just an incredible amount of engineering that's gone into it because you're building this road on the side of these steep bluffs,” said Hoeven, R-N.D.
Visitors will see stone riprap, wire suspension and concrete work holding the road in place and blending into the natural terrain, he said.
The project cost about $51 million, almost entirely funded from the Great American Outdoors Act, which supports national parks' and public lands' deferred maintenance needs.
The closed road segment dates to the Great Depression, when the Civilian Conservation Corps developed the area that became the national park. The scenic loop was completed in 1968.
The road project needed more money because of continuing failures of the soil under the road, contract bids higher than budget estimates and erosive storms, the park service said. Long winters and short summers limited construction, and rain and winter weather took a toll as well, the agency said.
Fully opening the loop road means the park will be completely accessible when the nearby Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library holds its grand opening July 4. Organizers expect the library, once opened, will draw hundreds of thousands of people.
“The next thing that they're going to want to do, if they haven't already done it, is to go through the park,” library spokesperson Matt Briney said.
More than 700,000 visitors a year see the park, North Dakota's top tourist attraction.
This image provided by the National Park Service shows the collapsed road along Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s scenic loop drive before reconstruction began in North Dakota. (National Park Service via AP)
This image provided by the National Park Service shows the reconstructed roadway in the Badlands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. (National Park Service via AP)
COURCHEVEL, France (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin isn't just winning every slalom of the Olympic season. She's winning them by an average of more than 1.5 seconds — an eternity in ski racing.
The American skiing standout claimed a record-extending 105th World Cup victory after several of her top challengers went out during a night race Tuesday.
Shiffrin added to her first-run lead to finish 1.55 seconds ahead of Swiss skier Camille Rast and 1.71 ahead of German racer Emma Aicher.
Shiffrin has now won the opening four slaloms of the season — and five straight including the final race of last season.
All of her margins of victory this season have topped a full second — and three of them more than 1.5 seconds: 1.66 in Levi Finland; 1.23 in Gurgl, Austria; and 1.57 in Copper Mountain, Colorado before her latest performance in the French Alps.
Do the math and the average margin is 1.5025 seconds.
“I’m just pushing. I’m not asking questions. Sometimes you just got to take it and roll with it,” Shiffrin said. “Lock in this feeling.”
Lena Duerr, the German who stood third after the first run, went off course early in her second trip down.
Lara Colturi, the Italian-born skier who races for Albania, straddled a gate toward the end of her opening run — ending a streak of three consecutive slalom podiums.
Wendy Holdener managed a seventh-place finish despite a mishap at the end of her first run.
Holdener hit a hole in the finish area, got flipped up into the air and landed on her back. After grimacing in pain for a few moments, she got up and walked away. It wasn’t immediately clear if she was injured but she competed in the second run.
Defending World Cup slalom champion Zrinka Ljutic and Olympic silver medalist Katharina Liensberger, the next two starters, went out midway down.
It’s the third straight slalom that Ljutic has failed to finish.
Katharina Truppe of Austria finished fourth and American skier Paula Moltzan moved up from ninth to fifth with the fastest second run.
Shiffrin earned her 68th World Cup slalom win. She also won gold in slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics — then took gold in giant slalom four years later at the Pyeongchang Games.
But Shiffrin didn't medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Women’s Alpine skiing at the Feb. 6-22 Olympics will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy — where Shiffrin won four medals in her four events at the 2021 world championships and where Lindsey Vonn holds the record of 12 World Cup victories.
Vonn, who won a downhill last week at age 41, no longer competes in slalom.
Vonn will be back in action this weekend for a downhill and a super-G in nearby Val d’Isere.
Rast recovered from a mistake midway down her second run to earn the sixth podium of her career.
Aicher, who also won a downhill last weekend, is one of the few skiers competing in all four events.
Rast and Aicher moved up to third and fourth in the overall standings, respectively.
Shiffrin leads the overall with 558 points, followed by Alice Robinson (394), Rast (343) and Aicher (319).
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates winning an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
Switzerland's Camille Rast celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin, left, winner of an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, and Germany's Emma Aicher, third-placed, congratulate each other at the finish area, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates winning an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
Albania's Lara Colturi competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
