BELLE FOURCHE - Cal Klewin was all smiles last week as he heard highway officials discussing upgrades for U.S. Highway 85 through Belle Fourche.

Klewin is the executive director for the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway, based in Williston, N.D. That project would extend four-lane highway "Ports to Plains" transportation from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Klewin stopped for the meeting on his way home from a Ports to Plains meeting, "a nine-state corridor association," in Denver.

One bottleneck for increasing truck traffic has been in the mile-long stretch of Highway 85 through Belle Fourche.

The improvements on the route are important the Belle Fourche economy - and to the national economy, he said.

"It's going to have people create more traffic in the whole region," Klewin said. "This is going to be the route to take."

He said that with wind energy joining coal, petroleum and ethanol as part of a national energy plan, "We have the top energy-producing states and the top wind producing states."

"You've seen those big wind turbine blades traveling through town already," he said.

Belle Fourche Chamber of Commerce executive Teresa Schanzenbach agreed with his assessment, she said. "We need to push improvements on the 88 miles north of Belle Fourche in South Dakota."

The proposal is to create four lanes of highway running from the Gulf Coast to Denver, then north, partly on current Interstate highway and partly on four-lane roads, to meet Interstate 90 in Rapid City, then connect to the new four-lane highway from Spearfish to Belle Fourche, then to Canada.

Klewin said there are major lobbying efforts in Washington for a four-lane road from Belle Fourche to Canada as part of the next federal highway bill.

North Dakota would have 197 miles of highway upgrades, "and we have taken the lead on this," he said.

He said Belle Fourche has the potential to be a major highway junction, as well, since U.S. Highway 212 is also experiencing increased truck traffic bypassing I-90 to and from Billings, Mont., to save hours and fuel costs.

North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad has heavily promoted the route and has held two federal hearings on upgrading the highway from Belle Fourche north.

"He feels that there is a real need," Klewin said. "He called it the Highway 85 Energy Corridor."