REGIONAL— Travelers along Hwy. 169 south of Tower will want to plan for extra time starting Monday, as work is set to begin on a mill and overlay project to repair the crumbling road surface along a roughly ten-mile stretch of the heavily-trafficked corridor.
The $3.4 million project includes resurfacing the stretch, repairing culverts, converting existing street lighting to LED, and clearing trees that cause too much shading in the winter months.
The work is being done by Angora-based KGM and is expected to continue through September.
Travelers can expect frequent lane closures throughout the project, which will cause delays. MnDOT spokesperson Margie Nelson said they hope to keep delays down to 10-15 minutes per trip during most of the construction period, but longer delays may occur.
While the work will be an inconvenience for area drivers, its completion is likely to be welcomed by frequent users of the stretch of highway, which has been plagued by broken pavement, large potholes, and heaving culverts for the past few years.
The project will include repairs around culverts, but no planned replacements. A heaving culvert near Karjala Rd., which has created a slowdown particularly in winter, will get some attention to hopefully smooth it out.
Some tree clearing, mostly spot treatments between the Y Store and Tower, will be undertaken in order to reduce road shading in winter. That work won’t be done until late fall, however, since tree clearing is currently restricted in the summer months to protect the habitat of the endangered northern long-eared bat. The locations of the planned tree clearing were not immediately available.