Cass County approves memorandum with Applied Digital for highway turn-lane work, pending sheriff review

The Cass County Commission on Sept. 22 approved a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Applied Digital to build turn lanes and related intersection work on County Road 22 and County Road 81 to support construction and eventual operations for a planned Applied Digital campus in the Harwood area.

The MOA, described to the commission by County Highway Engineer Kyle Ochey, assigns design, construction and testing costs to Applied Digital and requires the company to keep county roadways free of construction debris. "There'll be no cost to Cass County with any of the construction or design or testing that goes along with constructing these turn lanes at both locations," Ochey said.

Commissioners and company representatives said the immediate need is to handle the large volume of construction traffic — including gravel trucks and more than 700 construction workers at peak — and to provide safer turning movements at two intersections. Applied Digital Senior Construction Manager Keith Lear told the commission the primary operational entrance will be from County Road 81 to the south, while much of the construction material traffic will approach from the north. "We want to make sure that any sort of additive construction traffic that we have, we're making proper safety precautions via the turn lanes or the bypass lanes to help alleviate some of that congestion," Lear said.

Why it matters: The commission emphasized the county’s limited exposure to cost while raising concerns about public safety and local traffic impacts. The agreement includes provisions that Applied Digital will fund any design changes that would otherwise conflict with the county's planned Highway 81 five-year rebuild, and that the county will assume routine maintenance after construction is completed and accepted.

Commissioners asked whether the sheriff's office had reviewed traffic and safety plans; Ochey said no formal safety review had been completed and suggested a light review was appropriate. The chair proposed amending the motion to require review by the Cass County Sheriff's Department before work begins. "If it hasn't been reviewed, it should be before work begins," the chair said.

Company and county officials described steps intended to limit impacts on Harwood and nearby townships: Applied Digital has permits and an agreement with Reed Township for temporary use of township roads and said it performed a day-one condition survey and will be responsible for restoring roads to their prior condition. Lear said, "We did a kind of day 1 survey of the site, pictures of the site, we look at the existing conditions, our responsibility to the township is to replace that road in the current condition it was before we started with it." He also said the project team has discussed staging, staggered shifts and other operational measures to reduce peak travel congestion.

County commissioners and the Harwood mayor discussed traffic volumes through the town. The mayor said County Road 22 is already heavily traveled and asked Applied Digital to consider rerouting worker traffic if the company receives complaints. Lear said the company has not completed a formal traffic study for County Road 22 and is relying on intersection improvements and operational measures to limit impacts. "For overall traffic, again we haven't done a formal traffic study across County Road 22," he said.

Formal action: The commission moved to authorize the chair to sign the MOA with Applied Digital for Cass County Highway 22 and Cass County Highway 81, pending review by the Cass County Sheriff's Department. The commission took a roll call vote; the motion passed with all voting members recorded as voting in favor.

What remains open: The record shows no completed county or sheriff traffic safety review at the time of the vote. Applied Digital and county staff said they expect to finalize details for temporary township road use, utility connections and any future design changes during the coming months.

The approval comes as the company prepares to mobilize for site work and for the county to include the site-related intersections in its future five-year roadway planning.