by Mike Knaak
editor@thenewsleaders.com
The major work on resurfacing CR 75 will be delayed until the summer of 2019, Stearns County Engineer Jodi Teich told county commissioners on June 5.
The county needed federal approval before advertising for bids on the $10 million project. The delay means work would not be able to start until August at the earliest and the entire project would not be completed this year.
“With the late start, we don’t want to disrupt up to 30,000 vehicles a day for two seasons,” Teich said.
As a result, the preparation work along the six-mile project will be done this summer, but the major resurfacing that involves limiting traffic to one lane in each direction won’t happen until 2019. The work will begin this summer by replacing traffic signals with temporary lights and building crossover lanes.
Plans call for a new road surface as well as safety and drainage improvements from just west of St. Joseph at Collegeville Road through the city to the 15th Avenue/CR 81 intersection in Waite Park.
At its June 26 meeting, the county board approved advertising for bids for the project.
Those bids will be opened on July 19.
About half of the $10 million project will be federally funded with the other half coming from the state-aid-construction fund.
