Highway 61 project on stimulus list

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A pavement preservation project on Highway 61 from Trunk Highway 10 to 12th Street in Newport is on the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s draft list for federal stimulus funding.

Not every project on the list is likely to get funding from the economic stimulus legislation going through Congress, according to MnDOT’s Web site.

The $21,600,000 project would create 556 jobs, according to the Web site.

Contractors would place a 7-inch unbonded concrete overlay on the portion of road. The pavement covering the stretch of roadway now has been there for about 50 years, said MnDOT metro materials and pavement engineer Dave Van Deusen. The overlay should perform very similar to new concrete, lasting for another 30 to 50 years, he said. The advantage to doing an overlay is that it’s quicker than demolishing and removing the old pavement and it’s cheaper.

MnDOT spokeswoman Mary McFarland-Brooks said the project is likely to occur with or without federal funding, but it might happen sooner if it gets stimulus funding.

The timing of the project also depends on other road construction going on in the area, McFarland-Brooks said. The Wakota Bridge project, which is ongoing, the Hastings bridge replacement, scheduled to start in 2010, a widening of Highway 494 between Interstate 94 and Lake Street in Woodbury, which is scheduled to be done by July 2010, and projects on highways 55 and 52 could possibly push back the overlay project, she said.

“The concern is that you run out of places to detour people to,” McFarland-Brooks said.

MnDOT will have a better idea of which projects will get federal funding after the second stimulus bill is passed into law, she said.

Tags: highway 61, newport, mndot, construction, stimulus