WILLMAR — As work on the North Gap of the Highway 23 Gaps expansion project has wound down for the winter, members of the Highway 23 Coalition continue to work on their overarching mission.
“We’ve been working for quite some time on creating a four-lane, safe Highway 23 corridor from border to border,” said coalition chair Jeff Bertram at the Nov. 1 meeting of the Kandiyohi County Board.
Minnesota Highway 23 runs from just west of Luverne to Duluth, approximately 343 miles across
The Highway 23 Coalition has a vision of a four-lane corridor from the far southwest corner of the state near Luverne all the way up to Hinckley, just before drivers reach the popular North Shore. It is a vision that will require a lot of time, effort and money to make a reality, but it is a job the coalition seems willing to take on.
“We want the whole corridor, and we are not going to stop until we get it,” said Donna Boonstra, coalition chair.
In Minnesota, there isn’t a complete four-lane
WILLMAR—In 2017, the Kandiyohi County Board of Commissioners approved a five-year local option sales tax to fund four road improvement projects covering 10 miles of road and one bridge at a cost of $14 million. Revenue collection began in 2018 and is set to expire in 2022.
Mel Odens, Kandiyohi County Public Works director, is hoping the County Board will approve extending the half-cent sales tax for another seven years.
“The request is seven years of a sales tax, 11 projects, 40 miles
WILLMAR—Two years after the first shovels full of dirt were moved in July 2019, the road construction portion of the Willmar Rail Connector and Industrial Access Project has been completed, minus a few little things that still need to be wrapped up.
“For a project of this size and complexity, it went really well,” said Paul Rasmussen, project manager from the Minnesota Department of Transportation District 8.
Work began on the project, better known as the Willmar Wye, on July 9,
WILLMAR—The early arrival of winter, or at least a sneak peek of it, has caused a delay in the completion of the realignment of U.S. Highway 12 on the western edge of Willmar, a part of the Willmar Wye railroad bypass project.
According to the weekly wye update released Monday by the Minnesota Department of Transportation District 8, the new Highway 12 probably won’t be open for traffic until mid-November. It had been hoped that portion of the project would be complete by the end of October.
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WILLMAR—Progress continues to be made to construct the four-lane “gaps” on Minnesota Highway 23 between New London and Richmond ahead of the original schedule.
Plans are on track to construct the south and north gaps in a three-year span, from 2022 through 2024, Jon Huseby, District 8 engineer, Minnesota Department of Transportation, told members of the Area Transportation Partnership Oct. 9.
Read the full article by the West Central Tribune.
WILLMAR—Some familiar issues are emerging as the District 8 office of the Minnesota Department of Transportation looks at how to improve intermodal freight movement in the southwest counties of the state.
Safety is chief among them: The district has a high rate of severe accidents at its high-traffic intersections, Lindsey Bruer, planning director for District 8, told members of the district’s Area Transportation Partnership at its Oct. 9 meeting.
She said the crash record was consistently
WILLMAR—As warmer weather returns, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Hoffmann Group, contractor for the project, are getting ready to restart work on the Willmar Wye railroad bypass project on the west side of Willmar.
According to a project update from MnDOT, crews will begin construction next week on the new U.S. Highway 12 bridge, which will go over the rail line to be constructed by BNSF Railway.
Also next week, grading will be prepared for sidewalk and median concrete at the
Clara City promotes itself as the “Crossroads on the Prairie,” but there is a downside to the meeting of state Highways 23 and 7 at the south end of the community.
Traffic accidents at the intersection of the two highways have long been a concern for emergency responders and law enforcement.
At the urging of elected officials in Clara City, Chippewa County, and the Highway 23 Coalition, the Minnesota Department of Transportation is looking for ways to make the intersection a safer one.
SPICER—It may seem logical that a business that sells electricity should have a vehicle that runs on electricity.
That’s one reason why the Kandiyohi Power Cooperative began leasing a 2019 Tesla Model 3 this fall.
The co-op didn’t want to just “talk the talk but walk the walk,” said Dan Tepfer, energy management specialist with the co-op.
The white, four-door sedan has wrap-around advertising letting people know the car is powered “100%” by electricity.
With the rise in popularity of
