RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Summer roadwork season is underway across South Dakota, with construction projects, highway maintenance, utility work and safety campaigns affecting travelers in several parts of the state. Here’s a look at the latest updates motorists should know for the week ahead, before heading out on the roads.

Ditch work begins June 8 on SD Highway 20 west of Reva

A road construction project is scheduled to begin Monday, June 8, on South Dakota Highway 20 west of Reva.

According to the South Dakota Department of Transportation, crews will perform miscellaneous ditch work on SD Highway 20 from approximately 1.75 miles west to 1 mile west of the junction with Highway 79.

Construction activities will take place weekdays between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. MDT and are expected to continue through June 26. The project is scheduled to conclude at 4 p.m. MDT on Friday, June 26.

Motorists traveling through the area are encouraged to use caution and be alert for construction workers and equipment operating near the roadway.

Drivers with questions about the project can contact their local South Dakota Department of Transportation area office for additional information.

Blotter operations begin June 8 on U.S. Highway 385 near Pactola Dam

Road work continues on U.S. Highway 385 between Pactola Dam and Calumet Road.

Beginning June 8, contractors will start blotter operations, a process that involves packing and hardening the road surface. The work is expected to continue through July.

Motorists should use caution in the work zone and be aware of loose gravel and reduced speeds during the construction period.

Black Hills Energy to remove powerline overnight along Fifth Street in Rapid City

Black Hills Energy will remove an overhead power line in downtown Rapid City later this week, with work scheduled overnight to minimize traffic disruptions.

The decommissioning is set to begin around 9 p.m. Wednesday along Fifth Street, stretching from the alley south of Kansas City Street to the alley north of Main Street.

Officials say the nighttime schedule is intended to reduce impacts in the busy downtown area and provide a safer work environment. One lane of Fifth Street will be closed during the project, and drivers are asked to use caution while traveling through the area.

The work is expected to be completed in a single night. For questions or more information, the public can contact Black Hills Energy at 605-721-2642.

SDDOT outlines summer timeline for mowing highway ditches across the state

The South Dakota Department of Transportation is reminding landowners that highway ditches can’t be mowed until specific dates each summer. In parts of western South Dakota, mowing can begin June 15, while areas east of the Missouri River must wait until July 10. All mowing must be finished by Sept. 1 unless an extension is approved.

Landowners next to state highways get first priority to mow the adjoining ditches. Anyone else must have permission from the property owner, and a permit is required to mow along Interstate highways.

The state may mow some areas earlier to control weeds and improve safety. For more information, contact a local SDDOT office or visit the SDDOT website.

Officials encourage safe towing practices statewide during Trailer Safety Week

The South Dakota Department of Transportation is encouraging drivers to prioritize safe towing practices during Trailer Safety Week, June 7-13.

The annual awareness campaign highlights the importance of trailer safety and aims to educate the public on proper trailer maintenance and use. The initiative also seeks to strengthen partnerships among trailer dealers, manufacturers and consumers to promote safer roadways.

State officials said increased awareness and proper trailer maintenance can help prevent crashes and improve safety for all motorists traveling South Dakota highways.

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The time has arrived: Your Wisconsin independent bookstore journey is about to begin – and don’t forget your map.

During the month of June, residents can participate in the Wisconsin Indie Bookshop Quest by shopping at independent bookstores across Wisconsin for a chance to win a variety of prizes, according to the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association.

The more bookstores you visit, the more chances you have to claim a prize. To begin, pick up a map at any participating bookstore.

More: Why Milwaukee-area independent bookstores are thriving

How does the Wisconsin Indie Bookstore Quest work?  

The monthlong event began June 1 and runs until June 30. Participants start by getting a map at any participating bookstore. A full list of participating bookstores can be found online.  

When you visit, bookstore staff will mark your map. Each store you visit gives you another entry into a raffle. More tickets can be earned by “meeting bookstore pets, attending a bookstore event and more,” the association’s website says.

Maps can then be dropped off at participating bookstores at the end of the month. Winners will be chosen through a random drawing.

What are the prizes?  

The prizes include multiple different gift cards. And if you visit 10 or more bookstores, you can earn a free audiobook.

The prizes include:  

• $300 gift card 
• $200 gift card 
• $100 gift card  
• $100 Bookshop.org gift card 
• $50 gift card – four people win 
• $25 gift card – ten people win  

Inbolt, the Detroit-based robot intelligence company, is launching two new capabilities that complete the company’s AI vision model for robot guidance: Inbolt Robot Programming and an expanded Inbolt Robot Control.

Both technologies will debut at the Automate 2026 trade show at Chicago’s McCormick Place from June 22-25.

“Robot deployment still takes weeks because the digital twin never matches the real factory floor, engineers hand-tune every trajectory during commissioning,” says Rudy Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Inbolt. “With Robot Programming, the Vision Model, and Robot Control on a single platform, that gap closes.

“Engineers build the program from the CAD, our vision model locates the real part, and the robot executes the planned path. One platform from perception to motion, on the robots manufacturers already own. That’s AI perception built for the factory floor.”

With Robot Programming and Robot Control, Inbolt says it covers the full path from virtual commissioning to adaptive robot motion control, for stationary and moving-line applications.

Until now, the company says, deploying a robot on a factory floor took weeks as engineers carefully build digital twins of the production line, then spent the commissioning window touching up trajectories point by point because the virtual environment never fully matches reality. If the robot is anchored 2mm off, or parts arrive in unrepeatable positions, every path gets re-taught and tuned by hand.

With the latest release of Inbolt Robot Programming, the programming capability inside Inbolt Studio removes that step entirely. Engineers build the program directly on the CAD model, in the part’s own reference frame. At runtime, the Inbolt Vision Model locates the real part and adjusts the robot’s motion to execute the planned path exactly.

“No teach pendant. No iterative tuning. No separate workflow for moving lines,” says Cohen. “Weeks of commissioning now works in one shot. The digital twin and the factory floor are the same thing.”

The CAD-based release is available for FANUC, Universal Robots, and Yaskawa on dynamic (moving line) applications, with broader brand coverage on the roadmap. Two of Inbolt’s four Automate 2026 booth demonstrations will run it live, so visitors can watch the system go from CAD to executable robot motion in front of them.

“Automate in Chicago is where we plant our flag in the U.S.,” says Albane Dersy, co-founder and COO of Inbolt. “Four live demos, two product launches, a deep integration with FANUC and NVIDIA on the show floor, and a panel on the future of physical AI. Our U.S. footprint has expanded across Stellantis, GM, and Toyota plants this year, our team has doubled, and the U.S. contingent doubles again by year-end.”

Inbolt’s second product release is an expansion of Robot Control, the real-time robot motion execution component of the platform, now running natively on Yaskawa, joining FANUC, KUKA, ABB, Universal Robots, and Comau.

Robot Control streams corrected joint commands directly into the robot’s servo loop at native control frequency, closing the loop between what the vision model sees and how the robot moves. The Yaskawa expansion brings Inbolt’s native robot brand coverage to six, giving manufacturers a single intelligence layer for real-time execution across the brands they already own.

Inbolt also has released updates to the Inbolt Vision Model with improved global part localization models. The model now tracks a wider variety of parts, and the Inbolt Studio dashboard exposes part position, detection status, and live performance tests for each use case. Robotics engineers can troubleshoot and evaluate Inbolt’s performance on their specific station inside Inbolt Studio.