EAGLES NEST TWP– After a long Fourth of July holiday weekend, road builders on the Highway 169 reconstruction project between Ely and Tower resumed work this week.

Rainy and soggy conditions - even the formation of a temporary lake in the work corridor after a four-inch rainfall - didn’t slow progress on the Highway 169 reconstruction project between Tower and Ely.

According to Minnesota Department of Transportation District 1 project manager Michael Kalnbach, just over one-quarter of the project is complete. Kalnbach, along with MnDOT Construction Supervisor Dan Squires, and Hoffman Construction Manager Tom Dobberthein, provided a project update last Thursday at the Eagles Nest town hall.

“Taking a couple days off will help dry out the construction zone,” Kalnbach said. “This rainy weather has not helped us one bit.”

Based on dollar value ($16 million) the project is almost 30 percent complete. One month ago, Kalnbach reported five-percent completion. “We are making good progress.”

Just over 40 percent - 63,000 cubic yards - of the planned rock blasting is complete, Kalnbach said. At least six to eight additional weeks of blasting will be needed. Blasting will continue at least twice a day between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Rock blasting in the area appears to be impacting the fishing prowess of at least one summer resident in the Eagles Nest area. “Is all this blasting and drill work have anything to do with my not being able to catch any walleye?” asked Stan Vandersnick in as serious a tone as he could muster before the two dozen people in the room roared with laughter.

“I’m not really sure,” responded Dobberthein.

Vandersnick was later asked if he caught walleye before the rock blasting, “Not really,” he said with a grin.

Dobberthein said traffic impacts in the six-mile stretch of construction zone will increase through the end of September. “We have more temporary (road) widening on the east end of the project that allows us to start grading right along the highway,” he said. Drainage pipes and culverts are installed on the eastern end of the project.

Road construction crews are working as many as 12 hours per day, from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Dobberthein said.

For the upcoming Blueberry/Arts Festival in Ely, with traffic sometimes appearing to be nonstop from Virginia, the construction contract calls for work to cease during the long weekend at the end of July. “The highway should be cleared and open,” Dobberthein said.

In terms of traffic delays, he said the typical flagging of traffic for construction activity is two or three minutes. There could be several flagging stops though the construction zone, he noted.

“When it comes to the rock blasting, that is really an unknown,” he said. “Voids in the rock or soft pockets could cause the rock to move farther out and cover the road more. If that happens, there could be a 15- to 20-minite delay as we try to get at least one lane open as soon as possible. Our biggest issue is the rock right along the highway.”

Kalnbach said the amount of sulfide rock encountered during construction has been close to what was planned, and there may be more in some places than anticipated. “The contractor was out earlier clearing out a lot of that rock rather than during the production blasting, so we had more analysis earlier in the process,” Kalnbach said. “The (testing) results have been relatively close to what we anticipated.”

If less limestone is needed than anticipated, the rock will still be treated with a higher volume, he said.

As many as 1,800 tons of limestone are anticipated for the mitigation program. “To put that in perspective that would be 500 side-dump truck loads at about two tons each,” Dobberthein said. He agreed that is a large amount of limestone for a road project in Minnesota.

As part of the sulfide mitigation plan, several drinking water wells near Six Mile Road and one spring will be committed to water sampling both near- and long-term, according to Kalnbach. “When that (plan) went into effect last fall, three of the 10 were not operational, because the cabins were winterized. Those three will be done within the next couple of weeks,” he said. Water sampling is conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health.

Over the next two weeks, grading and paving will increase. “Traffic will be switched onto the graded areas, and go back onto the existing road,” Dobberthein road. “We are talking about paving from Trygg Road to the east. That will be our biggest concentration. We hope to have all that ready to pave by the end of August.”

Dobberthein addressed complaints of flaggers not being more visible. “We talked to the flaggers and are making sure they are not hiding behind the barrels,” he said. “They have bright orange hard hats and clothes, but still seem to get lost. We may go to a flashing (stop and slow) panel. We’ve tried rumble strips and different things to get drivers’ attention and get them off the cell phones. We are open to suggestions.”

Squires said he is in the process of dropping the speed limit throughout the construction zone to 45 miles per hour. “With the commissioner’s approval, that will be 24 hours a day and seven days a week,” he said. It is enforceable so drivers will get tickets, but we’re not going with the double fines.” Those reduced speed signs should be up within the next two weeks.

Another update meeting will be held near the end of July.