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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Another project delay

Area residents hear update on Eagles Nest project during Tuesday meeting

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 4/29/16

EAGLES NEST TWP— Officials with the Minnesota Department of Transportation announced another delay this week on the planned upgrades to Hwy. 169, in Eagles Nest Township, which should push the …

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Another project delay

Area residents hear update on Eagles Nest project during Tuesday meeting

Posted

EAGLES NEST TWP— Officials with the Minnesota Department of Transportation announced another delay this week on the planned upgrades to Hwy. 169, in Eagles Nest Township, which should push the start of construction on the $20 million project to early-to-mid October.

“We moved the bid letting date to Aug. 26,” project manager Michael Kalnbach told about 50 area residents during an informational meeting at the Eagles Nest Town Hall on Tuesday.

The bid letting had been scheduled for mid-July, but Kalnbach said delays related to rock drilling and development of a sulfide mitigation plan had pushed back the timeline by a month. MnDOT officials and officials from the Department of Natural Resources have yet to fully agree on how to mitigate exposure of sulfide hot spots along the planned reconstruction of a six-mile stretch of the highway. Kalnbach said he now expects to have a mitigation plan completed by mid-May and, if so, that should allow the project to move forward without additional delays.

While the rock drilling program was expensive and time-consuming, Kalnbach said it did reveal that the amount of rock blasting that will be required is significantly less than originally projected. Indeed, Kalnbach said about 150,000 cubic yards of rock will need to be removed to make way for the road improvements, a significant reduction from the original estimate of 227,000 cubic yards. “That represents about $1.5 million in construction cost savings,” he said.

While MnDOT hasn’t made final decisions, Kalnbach said the mitigation plan will probably call for mixing some higher sulfide material with low-sulfide rock as a buffering agent. In some hot spots, however, he said contractors will likely mix in limestone to buffer any acid runoff. In some cases, ditches may be lined with limestone as an additional mitigation measure.

Kalnbach said the DNR used a similar process to address acid rock drainage concerns over high sulfide rock exposed during construction of the new park entry road.

While the results of MnDOT’s test drilling showed higher levels of sulfide rock than expected along portions of the project corridor, he said the lower overall volume of rock in need of removal means MnDOT will be handling less high sulfide material than originally anticipated.

Matt Oberhelman, a DNR geologist who owns property near Six Mile Lake, challenged Kalnbach’s assertion, arguing that the sulfide levels were high enough that it warranted revisiting the federal Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI, which the Federal Highway Administration issued last November. “I believe it’s an invalid NEPA document,” said Oberhelman. “I believe it should be amended.”

Kalnbach noted that MnDOT has been consulting with a wide range of agencies on the issue over the past several months and that the FHWA had not expressed any concerns, to date, about the adequacy of the FONSI.

While the sulfide issue has been a significant one, other residents were more concerned about the increased noise along the highway since the extensive clearing of trees along the route. Several residents said the noise level had increased significantly since the trees were cleared. One resident, Rick Simmons, told Kalnbach later that he was planning to move further away from the highway given what he called an “unacceptable” increase in noise since the trees were cleared. In a response to another question about the tree clearing, Kalnbach said MnDOT was not including funds for replanting trees along the highway.

Robert Mattson, who lives near Clear Lake, asked about the use of rumble stripes and said he hoped they could be avoided near his property. The noise created by vehicles as they contact the rumble stripes has proven unpopular with residents throughout the area. “Please don’t put them in front of my place,” he said. “We’ve had a big enough increase in noise already.”

Kalnbach said the current design includes rumble stripes along the road’s center stripe as well as along the fog line. Given the six-foot paved shoulder planned for the road, he said the fog line rumble stripes will probably be placed a foot or two outside of the white line, which should help reduce the frequency of vehicle impact with the stripes. “We are talking about safety, here,” said Kalnbach. “Studies have proven that rumble stripes save lives.”

Meanwhile, MnDOT is nearing completion on its acquisition of the road right-of-way. According to Kalnbach, the agency has purchased 30 of the 33 affected parcels, with two others currently in condemnation proceedings due to title problems that currently prevent the transfer of the land.

At the same time, MnDOT’s tree-clearing contractor, Wagner Construction, has completed tree clearing on about 65 of the total of 75 acres of land required for the project, most of it for the southerly realignment on the west end.

Kalnback reiterated that the current project plan calls for no detour, but will require lane-shifting and some delays at various points during the construction process.