This week, workers scrambled to post detour signs and prepare drivers for the start of a two-year construction project along state Highway 34 in Park Rapids.
Signs prohibiting center street parking on the first block of Main Avenue and diagonal parking on the first 100 feet of Main were going up Thursday in anticipation of closing the Highway 34/71 intersection Monday morning.
The intersection will be closed "at first light," said Allan Minnerath of Central Specialties, Alexandria, general contractor for the Highway 34 reconstruction project.
For one block on either side of the intersection, access will be limited, but the public will be able to drive into businesses.
During the shutdown, detours will be posted to reroute traffic from all four directions (map Page A2).
ADVERTISEMENT
A separate detour route has been established for truck traffic to avoid construction on Highway 34 through the city. The southerly route will divert trucks onto Fair Avenue, Industrial Park Road, the CSAH 15 river crossing and CSAH 6. The north detour will guide trucks along CSAH 28 between Highway 34 and Highway 71.
The plan is to complete the driving portion of the Highway 34/71 intersection by May 25. Concrete work, including curb and gutter and sidewalks, will be done after the area is drivable.
Once the stoplights have been re-installed, the south half of Highway 34 will be closed with traffic constricted to the north half. Work will proceed from "a couple of hundred feet" west of the Fish Hook River bridge to Fair Avenue (not Western as reported earlier).
Sellin Brothers, Hawley, is contractor for the city utility work that is part of the Minnesota Department of Transportation highway project.
After this week, work underway in the vicinity of Western Avenue will slow down, as Sellin's crew moves to the intersection.
Gary Fingalson of Sellin Brothers said he hopes law enforcement will have a presence during construction since the underground work will be deep and the sides will have very sharp drop-offs.
Based on experience, Fingalson said, traffic in a rush is in the morning as people are going to work and in the evening when they are heading home.
At the weekly contractor's meeting Thursday, it also was decided to leave streetlights on the north side of the street as long as possible.
ADVERTISEMENT
Except during the two weeks of intense work at the Highway 34/71 intersection, construction will start at 7 a.m. and continue until 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and start at 7 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m. Fridays.
Weekly construction meetings will continue at 1 p.m. Thursdays at the Park Rapids Area Library, located at 210 West 1st St.
