MnDOT gives update on Highway 14 project in New Ulm

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The contract for rebuilding U.S. Highway 14 from the intersection of 7th North Street to the west city limits will be let March 26, Minnesota Department of Transportation Dist. 7 officials told New Ulm Chamber of Commerce members Friday.

This means work on the first two stages of roadway reconstruction to be completed this year, the 20th North Street detour which will connect with Front Street and the two frontage roads to be built on either side of North Highland Avenue in preparation for work on stage three next year can be expected to start perhaps as early as May 3, Project Engineer Bob Williams said.

"In fact, we may let the contractor start on the detour right away if conditions are right," Williams said later.

Chief Inspector Marv Kruger of MnDOT's Windom office told the group he expects work on the first stage, from the 7th North intersection to 9th North Street to be completed before the start of HeritageFest 2004. In case, MnDOT plans to keep traffic open on 12th North Street during HeritageFest weekends, Kruger added.

"The contractor will have 30 days in which to complete the first stage, but a lot depends upon the weather," Kruger told the group.

Later, Kruger explained MnDOT doesn't expect the contractor to go 24/7 on the project.

"All we ask is for five, 10-hour days a week, but the contractor may elect to go longer. We'd prefer they not go 24/7 because that's when problems can crop up," Kruger said.

Williams acknowledged the two-year project would cause considerable disruption, particularly for businesses and residents living along the segment being reconstructed.

Because of that, Williams said, MnDOT will be using various means to communicate with the community on the progress of the reconstruction.

"We will be inviting the public to sit in on our weekly review sessions with the contractor, and we will be posting weekly updates on construction progress on our website," Williams explained.

MnDOT plans to set up a field office in a Brown County Highway Department building at 1901 N. Jefferson and hold the weekly update meetings at that site if it doesn't interfere with normal county operations, Williams said. The website address is www.dot.state.mn.us/d7/projects/newulm14/ and can be accessed also by going to the New Ulm website, www.newulm.com, clicking on Chamber of Commerce and then clicking on the MnDOT logo. In addition, Chamber President Jeanne Albrecht said Chamber members could sign up for receiving a faxed update weekly.

As another means of communication, Journal Publisher Bruce Fenske announced the newspaper would carry an updated map of the construction progress weekly until the project is finished in October 2005.

Signage telling motorists how to find businesses impacted by the construction also was discussed. Williams said MnDOT would be providing signs at its cost that were generic detour signs and didn't mention specific businesses.

Albrecht said the Chamber had selected Sid's Signs On Broadway to coordinate and provide for purchase signs which would carry the names of specific businesses.

Sid DeLeo gave a price range for different sized signs and told the members that businesses could go together on an individual sign and split the cost of the sign. DeLeo also offered to keep the grass trimmed around the signs at no extra cost.

MnDOT Traffic Engineer Marc Flygare also announced that, as a part of MnDOT's resurfacing of U.S. Highway 14 between the "Y" intersection of Highways 14 and 15 north of New Ulm and Nicollet this summer, Highway 37 which becomes 20th South Street would be closed to traffic for a period of time this summer.

However, he said later it hadn't been determined whether that closing would coincide with the closing of the 7th North and North Broadway intersection closing.