Construction season seems to last forever; when do we get our roads back?
Dear Answer Man: Every year, the orange cones and barriers arrive in the springtime and last until the snow falls. Can we ever have nice roads and nice weather at the same time? When will all this road construction end. — Dejected Driver.
Dear Dejected,
There's a little more orange in the trees, and a little less orange on the streets. Alas, construction continues for the time being. Although, most has either wrapped up or is wrapping up within the next few weeks.
One of the biggest projects this summer was the repaving, reconstruction of U.S. Highway 14 from Byron to Dodge Center, though mainly from Byron to Kasson. If you haven't driven that way recently, you're missing out on one smooth road.
"The road had been getting kind of rough," said Mike Dougherty, spokesman for Minnesota Department of Transportation District 6. "But it's worked out well. The J-turn (at Dodge County Road 9). Everyone enjoys that brand new paving and fresh striping."
Turn north at Minnesota Highway 57 and you'll head through Mantorville. Dougherty said that project — and a similar one in LeRoy down in Mower County — are good examples of cities and the state working together. In Mantorville, for example, the repaved streets, better pedestrian access and ADA improvements in downtown are just some of the improvements from the project. If you look under the street, you'll find new sewer and water infrastructure that will help the town for decades to come.
"That turned out well," said "MnDOT Mike," adding, "It was a good investment for their community, replacing old water, sewer and sanitary sewer lines. This gives them a better walking environment for that downtown area if you're going to a restaurant or a show or get a treat."
That same sort of partnership, he said, is in play in LeRoy, where a 1.2-mile stretch of Minnesota Highway 56 saw the replacement of deteriorating pavement conditions, improved drainage, enhanced crosswalk safety, improved pedestrian accessibility and, from the city's side, the replacement of aging city utilities underneath the road.
While the Mantorville project has been completed for nearly a month, Dougherty said MnDOT is "hoping to have everything open to traffic right at the end of October here" in LeRoy. That said, the LeRoy project will need one final layer of asphalt added in the spring.
And Minnesota Highway 30 from Chatfield to Stewartville should wrap up by the end of October.
A couple of big multi-year projects got their start this summer, so while work might wind down at some point, at both the winter reprieve will seem like a temporary thing. The first is the reconfiguring the interchange at at U.S. Highway 52 and Interstate 90 near Marion.
This year, Dougherty said, saw a lot of prep work for 2025, which will see construct of a new eastbound I-90 bridge plus the new flyover bridge over Highway 52 that will serve as the conduit for the entrance ramp of eastbound I-90 traffic coming off southbound Highway 52. Next year will also see other ramp and loop work being done.
Dougherty said all the signs and lane restrictions should be removed by the end of October or early November at the latest.
The second big project also has I-90 traffic snarled, but this time in Austin. In total, MnDOT will replace six bridges that pass over I-90. The first bridge — Oakland Avenue West/Minnesota Highway 105 — should be completed within a couple of days. Next up, the demolition of the Fourth Street/Mower County Road 45 bridge, which will come down soon thereafter. That will be worked on through the winter as much as the weather permits.
Another project set to end soon — hopefully by the end of October — is the Olmsted County Road 35 bridge replacement over I-90.
Dougherty said there are plenty of other projects around District 6. There's bridge work being done in Red Wing at Withers Harbor Drive (two years, done by the end of October, hopefully), and repaving of Highway 56 through West Concord (done).
Of course, once all the detour signs and barricades are gone, the snow will fall and we'll have that road hazard to deal with until, well, construction begins anew in 2025.
