By Lori EhdeThe new Sioux Valley Luverne Medical Center officially opens doors for business Friday, but road construction surrounding the facility is still in progress.According to Rock County Highway Engineer Mark Sehr, work is progressing — weather permitting."We’re still anticipating being done sometime in the first half of August," Sehr said about Highway 75. "It keeps raining, but rain doesn’t hurt us that bad right now, because there’s gravel on Highway 75."He said curb and gutter work should start Friday, and paving will begin after that. Ideally, all stages of the project would progress simultaneously on both Highway 75 and 131st Street, but workers are now concentrating efforts on Highway 75 to more quickly provide that access to the Medical Center.Early this week 131st Street was too wet to work on due to rain over the weekend and on Monday, but with favorable weather, gravel surfacing is scheduled to begin today.If weather cooperates, Sehr said it appears both 131st Street and Highway 75 could end up being finished at the same time.According to code, the hospital needed two points of access in order to be open. Until the access to 131st Street is ready on the north, the temporary points of access will be from Veterans Drive on the west and from Christensen Drive on the east.Signage will be placed on Blue Mound Avenue and Christensen Drive to guide medical center users to the facility.The project started on May 11 and was due for completion during the second week of July, but since May 11, there have been 18 working days lost to wet conditions – about three calendar weeks.Because of construction delays around the hospital, scheduled work on Main Street and Blue Mound Avenue has been postponed from Aug. 1 to the week of Sept. 6.That project involves a mill and overlay of Main Street from Highway 75 east to the Rock River Bridge near the city park, and of Blue Mound Avenue from Main Street north to Veterans Drive.That work is expected to take about two weeks, which means it will be completed before the Tri-State Band Festival Sept. 24."Main Street will remain open during construction," Sehr said. "There may be traffic delays due to the construction, but it won’t be closed."He said flaggers will control traffic during construction operations on Blue Mound Avenue and Main Street. "It will take one day to mill off the bituminous surface, one day to place the first lift of bituminous base course and one day to place the final lift of bituminous wearing course," he said in a July 21 letter to Chamber members about the project."It may be necessary to restrict traffic on Main Street and side streets during construction operations."Curb and gutter replacement on those streets will start in about a week. "There will be restricted parking in those areas during the removal and replacement of the curb and gutter," Sehr said in the letter.Road work backgroundThe new medical center prompted work on the two roads for two reasons:oA north entrance was necessary on the back side of the hospital, so the former township gravel road, 131st Street, will serve that purpose. It is being transformed into a wide, paved, 10-ton road complete with curb, gutter and sidewalks.oHighway 75 is under construction because a turn lane needed to be added for the hospital entrance on the south and west and for the 131st Street intersection. Also, the hill at that intersection needed to be graded down for safer stopping sight distance.