EAGLES NEST TWP– State transportation officials briefed area residents late last week about the latest developments and progress on the Highway 169 improvements project between Ely and Soudan.

Mike Kalnbach, project engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation last held an update meeting at the Eagles Nest Town Hall in April.

The project has been held up for many years because of funding, route selection and most recently over sulfide rock and environmental issues.

“One of the things we have talked about for some time is rock excavation, rock volumes, and what are we going to do with the rock,” Kalnbach said to a group of about 30 area residents last Friday. Earlier this year, plans to award construction bids were moved from August until November.

A test-drilling process along the new alignment route from Six Mile Lake to Bradach roads resulted in 728 samples taken from about 179 drill hole sites. The samples contained varying amounts of sulfide after analysis from ALS Minerals of Canada.

A rock mitigation plan has been formulated though a collaborative effort involving a number of agencies including the Minnesota Natural Resources Department.

“As of this week, we are 90-percent done with the construction plan,” Kalnbach said. “We will be circulating the plan around to our various groups in the district. They will have a final review and our internal deadline is Aug. 23 for a near 100-percent plan.”

Letting or opening of the construction bids is scheduled for Nov. 18, according to Kalnbach and construction could start early next year. The project timeline calls for construction to take place from January 2017 through the summer of 2018.

Three right-of-way parcels are still in limbo along the alignment route. “Two of those are in condemnation. On one of them, the original owner passed away and we don’t have a clear title to the property,” he said. “We own the property but we have to finalize the paperwork.” Kalnbach anticipated having two of the three remaining right-of-way parcels in hand this week.

The remaining parcel, owned by the state of Minnesota and managed by the DNR, is in negotiation. “It is right in the middle of our project,” he said. “It is school trust land. We absolutely need that parcel in order to let the project. We are feverishly working on that.”

He admitted that issue could impact the construction schedule. “We have one state agency working with another state agency, but we have the commissioner of transportation and the commissioner of the DNR working together on this and I expect some resolution soon,” he said.

A public waters permit is still needed from the DNR. An Army Corps of Engineers permit has been submitted. “What typically happens, is, we submit the permit, they provide comments back to us, and we provide a response,” he noted. “One of their comments was they wanted to know what we are going to do with the rock (from the mitigation plan).” MnDOT and the Corps of Engineers met at least three times in the last two weeks to explain what is in the (rock mitigation plan).

Kalnbach did not anticipate any issues or delays in construction from the Corps of Engineers.

“With the anticipated date of Nov. 18 for construction bid letting, and about six weeks needed to award a contract, construction could start on Christmas,” he said. Construction would likely start in the beginning of January.

“Depending on what contractor we get, what types of equipment they have, and what kind of resources they plan to put into the project, with a completion deadline by early summer of 2018, they may not choose to start in January,” Kalnbach said. “Winter construction is very difficult on equipment and they may chose to start in March.

The drop-dead construction finish date is still to be determined. “At this point, we don’t have the construction schedule finalized,” he said.

The final six miles of the project has been held up in part by concerns that blasting high amounts of rock along the proposed route will cause environmental damage. As part of an environmental assessment, MnDOT performed additional drilling to characterize the type of rock along the alignment.

Rock mitigation

In describing the plan to mitigate sulfide-bearing rock along the route, Kalnbach stressed that the plan was not formulated strictly through MnDOT. “We had a number of other groups involved in the process,” he said.

A Technical Working Group included, among others, an area resident, the DNR, and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. “An Environmental Advisory Team was made up of higher-level folks from the DNR, MPCA, and also included the Environmental Protection Agency, Corps of Engineers, Department of Health, and other technical groups,” he said.

Kalnbach said the Highway 169 project is the first MnDOT project where sulfide rock was addressed. “That has led into the prolonged process here,” he said.

One resident at the Eagles Nest meeting complained of the continued delays in the project. “We don’t need anymore lip service,” he said. “Let’s get the ball rolling.”

Kalnbach responded, “We’re looking at protecting the environment. This is a complex plan,” he said.

The mitigation plan involved two stages of field investigation. Some investigation was done as far back as 2010, he said. “As a result of analysis of those outcrop samples, and after we refined the route alignment, we committed to perform additional drilling last summer to better characterize the rock,” he said. “We drilled a lot of holes (179) that resulted in 728 core samples. The samples were analyzed and we received very valuable information to develop a quality mitigation plan.”

“Once we determined the amount of sulfur in the rock, we had to decide what we were going to do to counteract (the sulfur) before we bury it in the ground,” he said. Of the 728 samples, there were 22 samples that contained more than one percent, and 81 samples contained no detectable sulfur. The other 483 samples contained sulfur that ranged from one-hundredth of one percent to less than one percent. The average sulfur content was .19 percent, according to Kalnbach.

The rock along the alignment corridor was analyzed for what he called “neutralization potential” and contains various amounts of acid or base material and “would naturally neutralize any acidity.”

Kalnbach said, “The mitigation plan is a conservative effort on our part to make sure we have enough offsetting material to neutralize the acidity. We are using a three to one ratio. In other parts of the world they may use a two to one ratio.”

The mitigation plan calls for a blending process of the rock to neutralize the acidity and using the material within the roadway. “The rock will be mixed with limestone or agricultural lime,” he said. “Before we add the mixed rock we will first lay down a layer of limestone, add the mixed rock, and cover it with a landfill-type liner that will cover the entire embankment on each side of the road, and under the road surface to virtually eliminate any moisture.”

He said the mitigation plan also calls for monitoring of surface water and water well samples for at least five years by the Department of Health.

Kalnbach said another update on the Highway 169 project would be scheduled for early January.