Is I-90 still very bumpy? (Rapid City, Pierre: construction, tile, moving)

[patorm42]

A few years back we drove I-90 in our RV and it was so bumpy we could not drive more than 60mph. Have they corrected this problem?

[debey]

I've never traveled I90 in an RV. How long ago, is "a few years back"?
Every summer, several stretches of the Interstate are in construction zones, and it seems to me they have ripped the old road out, and put in new. We travel I90 in a 1/2 ton truck. I will say, overall, it's ''smoother'' than 10+ years ago............

[DeadwoodJ]

I bet you're talking about the area east between Kadoka and Wall? They fixed that stretch a few years ago, thats the only 'bumpy' part that stands out at the moment.

[prairierose]

Last September, we traveled I-90 from Hwy 83 west to Rapid City towing a small trailer with a pickup and it was not very smooth. Not so much rough surface as undulating, and 60-65 mph seemed about the right speed.

[patorm42]

It was 5 to 10 years ago and it was east of Wall. The road was concrete sections. The RV would bounce over every slab trasition and it caused the vehicle to hop so much we had to really slow down. It sounds like the have finally repaved.

[ElkHunter]

Years ago when they put in I-90, they layed the first layer of concrete sections and before they could tile with a second layer, we got an early hard freeze. That caused the sections to raise up about every 40 feet and when you hit it at a reasonable speed (for that time period) it wasn't too bad. But if you hit it a little faster, the vehicle would pick up a rythem and it would really drive you nuts. The worst section was between Wall and New Underwood. Of course, it got attention first and was pretty much fixed back in the late 70's and early 80's. But they ground down the humps and filled in the valleys. The section from Wall to Kadoka started getting bad about that time. Haven't traveled it for 4 or 5 years but don't remember it being too bad compared to 15 years ago.

[Chris19]

I can remember the rough spots near Kennebec, Reliance, and Presho before the state fixed the sections back in the past four years or so. The strech east of Kennebec was wavy and bumpy. I wonder if some of it has to do with the type of soil in that area.

It was not horrible, but noticeable and worse than most of I-90 east of Chamberlain and I-29 in eastern SD. This was driving my 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix at the time and the car had decent allignment and was in relatively good shape.

[DannyBanany]

I know exactly where at in the Interstate you're referring to. The area right before Wall called Cactus Flats. Yes, it's still bumpy there. There are even flags to alert travelers. It can feel like a roller coaster if you're going fast in a sedan like I did a few weeks ago on a trip to the Twin Cities.

Another "fun" part on I-90 is the S-curve west of Rapid City. Pick up speed and it pulls you through. Unfortunatley they're taking it out this year.

[Chris19]

I have not noticed the bumpiness near Rapid and between Wall and Kadoka as much. Most of the time, someone else was driving when going near Cactus Flats east of Wall on I-90. In the past five years, I would drive from Pierre to Wall on US 14 and get on I-90 in Wall.

From my memory, I drove 65-70 mph between Wall and New Underwood and may not have noticed the bumps as much as others. For some reason, I did not feel comfortable driving any faster than that in that area due to some of the steep drop offs. A bit off topic, I can remember out by Elsworth AFB that traffic was moving very fast (a fast bunch of vehicles, I guess) and I drove 85 mph in order to keep up with the flow of traffic.

[DeadwoodJ]

Must have been a UFO sighting!