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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Comment meeting set on Hwy. 169 upgrade

MnDOT selects hybrid option as preferred alternative for Eagles Nest project

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 1/8/15

REGIONAL— The public will have a chance to weigh-in on MnDOT’s recent announcement regarding plans to upgrade Hwy. 169 between Tower and Ely at a public meeting set for Wednesday, Jan. 21. The …

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Comment meeting set on Hwy. 169 upgrade

MnDOT selects hybrid option as preferred alternative for Eagles Nest project

Posted

REGIONAL— The public will have a chance to weigh-in on MnDOT’s recent announcement regarding plans to upgrade Hwy. 169 between Tower and Ely at a public meeting set for Wednesday, Jan. 21. The meeting is set for 6-9 p.m. at Vermilion Community College, Room CL104.

In December, MnDOT officials announced their preferred alternative for the proposed 5.7-mile highway upgrade—a hybrid option (known as Alternative 3A) that combines portions of two different alternatives and keeps the project within the current $19 million budget.

MnDOT made the announcement concurrent with the release of its draft environmental assessment, which analyzed several alternatives, including a no-build option. The selection of a preferred alternative does not guarantee that it is the option that MnDOT will ultimately select. The final selection comes only after completion of the environmental review process.

MnDOT officials made their recommendation after analyzing a wide range of costs and benefits for each of the options under consideration. They selected Alternative 3A based on several criteria, including cost ($19 million), a relatively high number of passing opportunities, and the avoidance of a detour.

In terms of costs-to-benefits, Alternative 1, which involves upgrading the highway within the existing corridor without a detour, actually scored the highest of any of the alternatives considered. Alternative 1, with a price tag of $17.3 million, also required significantly less rock removal than the preferred alternative and impacted fewer acres of forest. The so-called South Route, (Alternative 3) had the most negatives, including the highest cost (at $21.6 million), the most wetland and forest impacts, and the need to blast 266,000 cubic yards of rock.

Alternative 3A combines the western portion of Alternative 3 with the eastern segment of Alternative 1. That helps reduce the environmental impacts and reduce the cost, at least as compared to Alternative 3. The hybrid option, however, does reduce some of the passing opportunities provided in Alternative 3.

But overall, the preferred alternative stands out, according to Duane Hill, MnDOT’s District Engineer. “The mobility benefits made the difference for us,” said Hill, who noted that Alternative 3A will nearly double the passing opportunities available in Alernative 1.

While MnDOT faced substantial political pressure, particularly in favor of Alternative 3, Hill said the project team tried to put that aside as they worked to consider each of the options objectively. “We got input from all over the place,” said Hill. “It all weighs-in, but in the end we tried to make our decision based on our technical analysis.”

The review took much longer than is typical for such a project, as the effort was plagued by controversy and issues, such as the existence of sulfide deposits, that haven’t been factors in previous road projects in Minnesota. MnDOT officials had difficulty early on in explaining the rationale for their original selection of Alternative 3 as a preferred option, based on its high costs and environmental impacts. When they changed course and refocused on Alternative 1, they faced strong political opposition from Ely officials. The end result is an effort to combine the best elements of both options.

“We put a lot of effort into it,” said Hill.

Public input

MnDOT will be accepting public comments on the environmental report until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30. All comments should be directed to: Michael Kalnbach, P.E., Minnesota Department of Transportation, District 1 – Duluth, 1123 Mesabi Avenue, Duluth, MN 55811, or emailed to michael.kalnbach @state.mn.us.

The environmental assessment is available for public review online at http://www.dot. state.mn.us/d1/projects/Hwy169eagles/EA-EAW.html.

Hard copies are also available at the Ely, Duluth, and Minneapolis public libraries, and at the MnDOT District One office on Hoover Road in Virginia.

MnDOT officials currently plan to announce their final route selection in February. Construction could start as early as winter 2016-17.