Progress

made on

Highway 14

3 miles of 4-lane near Eagle Lake open next week

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

MANKATO -- Three more miles of four-lane roadway on U.S. Highway 14 will be open to travel by early next week, Minnesota Department of Transportation's District 7 office announced Thursday.

In fact, it could be as early as Friday when the three-mile segment starting at State Highway 60, east of Eagle Lake, to near Smith's Mill, west of Waseca, will be opened.

However, the actual opening of the new section is weather-dependent, said Susan Museus, MnDOT's Highway 14 project supervisor.

Completion of the paved portion of what is known as Segment A of the Eagle Lake-Owatonna four-lane expansion project will extend four-lane travel eastward from Mankato another three miles.

Better news, at least for taxpayers, is that the first leg in the Eagle Lake-Owatonna project came in under budget in construction cost. Mathiowetz Construction Company of Sleepy Eye had the low bid at $13.4 million, $1.6 million under engineer's estimate. Even though the amount of muck to be dealt with was underestimated, the additional $4 million paid for muck excavation and granular backfill still made it an economical project.

"We were very pleased. It really depends on what else is out there for these contractors, how many of them bid on it, what other jobs are there for them to bid on, you know, what else they've got going. How hungry they are," District 7 Information Officer Rebecca Arndt said.

The remaining 1.8 miles in Segment A which dovetail with the planned 9.8-mile Segment B that by-passes Janesville have been graded but will be paved as a part of the Segment B construction. Work on that segment is expected to start next spring as bids will be let this winter, according to Arndt.

The bidding this winter on Segment B should give MnDOT a better idea whether having the low bid come in under estimate for the first segment was a fluke.

MnDOT's staff has started work on the Waseca bypass portion of Highway 14 by contacting landowners, investigating soils and working with various utilities.

Traffic on Highway 14 between State Highway 60 and Smith's Mill had been detoured since May, and traffic will be back on two-lane road starting at Smith's Mill until Segment B is completed.

Thanks to the governor's and lieutenant governor's transportation finance package announced earlier this year, Arndt said, which was designed to "speed up" certain designated highway projects, work is starting on Segment B in 2004 rather than 2005.

Arndt said the remaining segments of the "Highway 14 Eagle Lake to Owatonna corridor is roughly estimated in 2004 dollars at $150 million for construction and $11 million in right-of-way costs. Scheduled completion of all segments with current funding levels is 2014."