The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on October 16, 1931, and is the second in a series about Luverne's Rock River bridge.
Sen. Schall, after a brief statement concerning good roads, gave a political speech lasting an hour and a half. The following is the first part of this speech.
Southwestern Minnesota’s most prominent trunk highway improvement—the re-routing of No. 9 east of Luverne—insofar as grading and bridge installations are concerned, is now completed except for minor details. To fully realize the proportions that this project embraced one must travel over the four and one-half mile stretch that carries the highway along the north side of the railway from East Main street to a junction with the old route of trunk highway No. 9, in the center of Magnolia township.
The greatest amount of grading will be found over the mile and a half stretch through the Rock river valley where a grade, forty feet wide and at points 10 feet high, offers an adequate avenue of travel for all the traffic requirements that many years to come will impose. The bridge spanning Rock river, built on a level to conform with the East Main street grades, is generally conceded to be one of the finest structures of its kind built by the Minnesota highway department anywhere within the state, and within an area not over half a mile east are two smaller bridges that might be used as model structures on any average trunk highway. The Rock river bridge is 200 feet in length and consists of five 40-ft. spans, while the auxiliary bridges to the east which are designed to handle any excess water that may flow down the Rock river are 60-ft. steel girder spans.
Building of this new highway in reality lengthens Main street, as it is usually referred to, approximately 600 feet, for one coming from the east gets a splendid view of the city’s principal business street fully two blocks quicker than was possible under the previous low grade of the curving highway. Recognition by the state highway department that nothing is more dangerous to motor travel than a grade railway crossing caused the engineers to extend the grade through Rock river valley at a level that it eliminates the incline at the Rock Island crossing.
In connection with the building of the new trunk highway the attractiveness and convenience of Luverne’s public park has been greatly enhanced through the plans of the highway engineers with but little, if any, cost to the municipality. The addition of a lagoon, more than three acres in extent, on the north side of the highway north of the park, and the graceful curve cut by Rock river, have likewise added much to the attractiveness of the park area.
The formation of this lagoon was rendered practical by the large amount of filling required in getting the necessary highway grade and when adequate dam facilities have been provided, it is quite certain that the lagoon will contain an adequate supply of water.
The nine-foot grade north of the park serves as an enclosure and when entirely finished will be quite attractive. The old winding highway now serves as a driveway for the recreation grounds with the sole connection to the new highway at the extreme east end of the park, just west of the old spillway. There a gently sloping, wide grade has been built from which traffic may leave the trunk highway of motorists coming from what used to be known as the river road, may connect with the new highway on their way to Luverne. Incidentally, the park entrance at the east end has been regraded to conform in line and width with the wide approach to the trunk highway. A slight re-routing of the driveway through the extreme east portion of the park is to service this purpose and also that of eliminating a pronounced depression created by the required grading.
Next week: Sen. Schall's speech continues.