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ALEXANDER, N.D. — Lisa Lucas, a California girl in a stocking cap with a little boy in hand and a baby on board, is the reason for the bypass around Alexander.

It is for her and others trying to live out these rambunctious boom times that the state of North Dakota invested $160 million to take state highways around Alexander and Watford City instead of through them.

On Tuesday, after chilly but boisterous ribbon cuttings out on the pavement of both projects, the signal lights at Watford City went into operation. Back in town, it was like someone threw a shutoff switch. Gone was the noise of thousands of trucks, and a pedestrian could walk across the old U.S. Highway 85 intersection without feeling like it was a suicide mission.

It felt the same in Alexander, where the Main Street that used to be the main highway was quiet, just like the good old days. The noisy traffic on U.S. Highway 85 can no longer be heard, much less seen.

Lucas, who had pulled up to the Alexander Post Office to pick up the new baby crib shipped to her, said she likes the little town she and her husband settled into a year ago a lot more now that the traffic is gone.

“It feels like the country is supposed to feel,” Lucas said. “Even the locals are coming outside more.”