Street rehab leads Cottage Grove construction projects

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The Cottage Grove City Council has approved a five-year plan that lays out more than $90 million in future projects like improvements to roads and utilities and equipment purchases, including almost $20 million in work proposed for 2013.

Council members approved the city’s 2013-17 Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP, 5-0 at a Wednesday, Jan. 2 meeting, that sets a framework for $92 million of public improvements and purchases in coming years. Each proposal will come before the City Council for final approval before going forward.

The $19.7 million in proposed 2013 projects include a more than $7 million street and sewer rehabilitation; $1.4 million in cost share funds for a Washington County-led improvement of 70th Street; and the recently-approved $3 million widening of a stretch of East Point Douglas Road near a future Walmart Supercenter.

Smaller projects proposed in the 2013 portion of the plan include $700,000 to patch streets; more than $500,000 for the rehabilitation of Hinton Avenue from 80th to 70th streets; and $156,000 in various park improvements, such as park building rehabilitation, trail improvements and hockey board replacement.

Future proposed projects include further development of infrastructure in the city’s largely undeveloped East Ravine area in 2014 and beyond; an estimated $7 million replacement of the city’s primary fire station in 2016; and a major overhaul of the County Road 19/Keats Avenue overpass at Highway 61 in 2017, an estimated $19 million project the city would partner with the county and state to complete.

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