![Highway 23 North Gap Detour Ending Thursday](https://townsquare.media/site/67/files/2021/06/Hwy-23-North-Gap.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Highway 23 North Gap Detour Ending Thursday
RICHMOND (WJON News) -- Good news for drivers who have been detouring around the Highway 23 North Gap project this summer...the road is reopening to traffic by the end of the day Thursday.
The detour between Paynesville and Richmond will be removed and traffic will be returned to Highway 23 through the winter. The road will be two-lane head-to-head traffic until next spring when the final year of construction takes place.
The detour will return next spring and continue until November 2023.
The work in 2023 will focus on replacing two box culverts and completing a majority of the eastbound alignment.
![AM 1240 WJON logo](https://townsquare.media/site/67/files/2021/11/attachment-wjonam-alexacard-big.jpg?w=100)
The North Gap project expands nine miles of Highway 23 to four lanes and improves sightlines and reconfigured access points for some county roads along the corridor.
The cost of the project is just under $42-million.
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