Grand Forks' busy weekend of events will mean longer drive times

Sep. 30—With a busy schedule of events beginning on Oct. 1, drive time around venues in Grand Forks will increase, and event-goers and those driving to other locations need to be prepared.

Friday marks the beginning of a huge weekend for Grand Forks, with country music star Eric Church set to perform at the Alerus Center. While Church won't likely be breaking attendance records there, Grand Forks Police officers expect long lines of cars along South 42nd Street, and potentially along DeMers Avenue. Traffic will congest that area the next day as well, when the UND-NDSU football game kicks off at 2 p.m. Shortly after 6 p.m. that day, UND will take on Bemidji State in a hockey exhibition game at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

For music and sports fans, that could mean lengthy waits in cars as they try to enter the venues, unless they walk or take a shuttle from another location in town.

And Grand Forks Police are hoping people use private bus services, as one way to attend the events this weekend. Either that, walk or carpool. People parking at the Alerus Center for any of the events this weekend need to allow for the increased drive time, and head to the Alerus Center with plenty of time to spare.

"It's very difficult to move (efficiently), in a timely flow of traffic into a venue, where you have one road in and out," said GFPD Lt. Derik Zimmel.

Officers have a working plan, a plan that functions as a sliding scale in terms of the number of officers working to direct traffic and provide security. For large-drawing events, officers try to staff major intersections near the Alerus Center. When things get massive, as they did for Luke Combs, they move farther from that area to best direct traffic.

Starting on Friday and then again on Saturday, people may see police officers directing traffic at the intersection of 42nd Street and DeMers Avenue.

GFPD Sgt. Kris Brown works with the department's Education and Security Outreach Bureau, and his duties include overseeing special events. Brown said he is encouraging people who are not attending the weekends' events to find alternate routes around the area. No matter what, people need to be careful, he said.

"If they are in the area, just make sure they're watching out for pedestrians," Brown said. "That's the big thing. I just want to make sure that nobody gets hurt."

Still, for those music and concert fans and for people with UND Athletics, it's a weekend they've been anticipating.

"Our staff has been talking about these games just like our fans have, for a long time," said Kyle Doperalski, UND associate athletic director. "Fall is one of the best times here. Everything gets going and we've got a huge football game, one of the most important in a long time. Then we've got the start of the hockey season, which obviously is always a big deal, and (they) all just coincide with a few hours of each other."

Doperalski said people in UND athletics will be busy from the moment they open the Alerus Center on Saturday until the hockey game finishes that night. That includes moving staff from the Alerus Center to the REA, and getting media broadcasts set up and ready to go.

People working both of those events, including Alerus Center workers who need to work through the night to make the switch from a concert venue to a football stadium, "deserve a ton of credit," Doperalski said.

"There obviously is a lot going on, it is tremendously an exciting weekend," he said.

Todd Feland, Grand Forks city administrator, said city workers will bolster the ranks of those working to make the transition at the Alerus Center. Crews have a shorter window this weekend to get that done, compared to when they made the switch after the Luke Combs concert on Sept. 17. UND played Drake the day after the show, but the team took to the field at 4 p.m. This Saturday, the game begins at 2 p.m.

When it comes to public transportation on Saturday, Feland said the city is spread pretty thin, and will not be able to help out with special bus routes because of the support they are lending to Grand Forks Public Schools. People wanting to take a bus to the Alerus Center will need to rely on private sector transportation, which usually depart from bars and other locations in Grand Forks.

Feland said he was excited about the upcoming events, and that it is "another all-hands-on-deck weekend."

Matt Gust, at Space ZCruise LLC, said he's "loaded up" for the Eric Church concert Friday night. The party bus company doesn't usually have much to do with football games at the Alerus Center, as guests book the company's buses in blocks of hours. The company does about 40% of its business in Grand Forks, with the remainder coming from the surrounding area and Fargo.

"It's going to be plenty busy," Gust said.