Rain has played a factor in delaying the first phase of the Highway 75 reconstruction project.
Since the week of May 11, three workdays have been lost when more than 2 inches of rain fell on the project area. However, with the majority of the project complete a month later, the center lanes of the roadway will be open to local through traffic the week of June 15.
“They are being careful,” Luverne City Administrator John Call said of project officials with Duininck Inc. of Prinsburg. “It’s going to be dependent on the weather.”
Workers spent this week drying out the roadway where larger replacement culverts have been laid. Once this is complete, local traffic will be able to drive completely through Hwy. 75, while the detour stays in place for out-of-town traffic, Call said.
The detour will reappear again for all traffic when the final road surface over the box culverts is applied and the 250- to 300-feet of new curb and gutter is laid.
Once the final deck surface is complete over the culverts, the detour will be fully removed, Call said. However, an exact time frame is unknown, but contractors are planning to have the work complete by the end of June.
The Hwy. 75 project involved replacing the steel culverts with concrete box culverts to increase the water capacity of Poplar Creek under the roadway. While the roadway was opened for the culvert placement, new water, sewer and gas lines were installed. The lines extend from the culvert area north to Main Street.
Verlyn Van Batavia, who serves as city of Luverne’s project manager on the Hwy. 75 project, said the majority of the infrastructure work was completed last week with new water, sewer and gas lines bored under the railroad tracks and Hwy. 75.
Final hookup and testing of the pipelines is expected to be completed this week, depending on the weather, Van Batavia said.
Traffic will be detoured for one day around the Main Street/Hwy. 75 intersection when the final waterline connection is made.
The second phase of the project, resurfacing Hwy. 75, will see the detour barricades completely removed. Van Batavia said the mill-off and overlay process from Main Street south to Interstate 90 doesn’t require the closing of the roadway. However, traffic lanes may be restricted, he said.
Customer traffic down considerably to businesses
For store entrances affected by the detour, the reopening of Hwy. 75 to through traffic can’t come soon enough.
“People say it is hard to get here,” said Pat Rolph, assistant manager at Dollar General. “The barrels start so far up, people thought (the roadway) was closed.”
Signs displaying the business’s name have helped direct vehicles into the parking lot, but Rolph said she has noticed a decrease in customer traffic since the detour was put in place.
“It’s really inconvenient to get to Casey’s (located across the street),” she added.
The project, however, is something Rolph admits had to be completed, and General Dollar is doing its best to get through the construction process.
Also for the past month, the store has been without water service, getting water to its restrooms through a garden hose attached to the business next door. Currently, the restroom use is for employees only.