EAGLES NEST TWP – The Hwy. 169 reconstruction project near Eagles Nest is just over one-third complete. “We have made a lot of progress in the last month,” said Michael Kalnbach, MnDOT District 3 project manager at an update meeting on Aug. 3 at Eagles Nest Town Hall.

He spoke about various materials that have been hauled, excavated or blasted for the six-mile stretch of roadway under construction between Tower and Ely.

Nearly 98 percent of the unwanted organic materials from underneath the roadway corridor, called muck, have been excavated or removed from low-lying areas.

Rock excavation for the $16 million project so far stands at 85,000 cubic yards or about 57 percent of the project contract. “This is rock that has been uncovered, drilled and blasted,” Kalnbach said. “Once we uncover the rock and take all the overburden off of it, we have to estimate how much rock there really is. We are fairly close, percentage wise, which is a good thing because rock is expensive (to remove) and we want to be as close as possible.”

So far, about 371,000 cubic yards of material have been hauled, he said, which is about 38 percent of the contracted volume. And almost half (46 percent) of the total materials for the project have been excavated, or about 265,000 cubic yards.

One portion of the new roadway has actually been paved and is being driven on as part of the bypass around a portion of the project, according to Kalnbach. “Part of that portion is part of the final roadway corridor,” he said.

Tom Dobberthein, the project manager for the general contractor, Hoffman Construction, said the project fell behind schedule because of heavy rainfall in early July. “We are catching back up and working long hours to stay on schedule,” he said.

Major construction activity will be taking place in the Mud Creek Road vicinity for the next three months, he said. “The next phase in that portion is to get all the rock blasted and the roadway built and we plan to put new blacktop down toward the end of August,” Dobberthein said. “We will be switching traffic onto the new blacktop by the first of September, then we will be grading the other half of the road.” He noted that the second half will require “a lot less” grading and will take less time. That part of the new road corridor should be paved by the end of September or early October, he said.

“We are still working in the woods (western portion) section, but most of the heavy lifting on the east end of the job will be done in the next three months,” he said. “We should be driving on all new blacktop, from the job trailers (near Trygg Road), all the way to the end of the job on the east end by October,” Dobbethein said. A final layer of blacktop will need to be laid down next year, along with final landscaping.

The large box culverts under the east portionof the roadway are completed, except for some driveway culverts, according to MnDOT Construction Supervisor Dan Squires. “We still have three of them at the beginning of the west portion by Six Mile Lake Road, and another (box culvert) up in the woods,” he said. Work is being done this week to prepare for the box culvert installations on Aug. 14,” Squires said. “That will take about a week and we will have a gravel two-lane traffic bypass up to 200-feet long around the area, so expect that very soon.”

Dobberthein added that traffic would likely be diverted onto the gravel bypass for about two weeks.

Squires asked local landowners to be patient as work is completed near their property. “There will be times when access might be restricted, but we’re contacting landowners to let them know in advance. “It will take some time, but we’ll make sure you can get in and out of your driveway,” he said.

Mail boxes for land-owners will be moved starting this week, according to Dobberthein. “We are going to try to keep them in the same spots, but may be temporary at first.”

Squires added, “As we finish portions of the roadway, we contact the postmaster and determine which direction (the mail carriers) will be coming from, and we have to follow the new standards required for mail box location and height.”

Traffic and flagger safety along the construction corridor has been mostly positive. “We’ve had a few issues with distracted drivers,” Dobberthein said, “but no major accidents. “We had a warning sign stolen and someone was messing with one of our skid steers and keys were stolen last Sunday,” he said. “If you see anybody that looks like they shouldn’t be there, we ask that you call 911,” he said. “And don’t be driving where you shouldn’t be, because some areas might not be safe.”

The speed limit is posted at a maximum of 45 miles per hour through the entire six-mile construction corridor.