Road work ahead: Officials discuss highway plans

Highway 53

Bob Anderson, representing the Highway 53 Long Range Improvement Task Force, said that the next step in the plan for ongoing improvements on Highway 53 is on a nine-mile stretch from where the four-lane section currently ends at Idington to the south city limits of Cook.

The $38 million plan is to increase the highway from two lanes to four lanes and is expected to be in progress between 2011 and 2014.

Anderson also said that additional passing lanes between International Falls and Cook were being discussed, and may be implemented if funds left over from the scheduled project allow.

Also, an application for funds in the federal transportation bill, if approved, would fund left turn lanes at Ash River and Kabetogama.

And while Anderson said that he did not expect to see four lanes extend to International Falls any time soon, he said the future developments in the project depend on continued use.

“I think that some day if the traffic builds and if we have the industrial development along the corridor, I think we could. ... I don’t know that I’ll see that in my lifetime, but we’ll keep working on it,” he said.

“Certainly Highway 53 is an important economic development highway for this community because goods, supplies and people go up and down Highway 53 — materials coming in to our businesses, products coming out of the mill here and other facilities down 53; folks going down 53 for health care, entertainment and maybe a little bit of shopping once and a while, too,” Anderson said.

The “Falls to the Falls Corridor,” a phrase coined by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar referring to the stretch from International Falls to Chippewa Falls, Wis., is a transportation network and links the area as far south as Laredo, Texas, and north into Canada through connections of the trunk Highway 53.

Anderson explained that the project started at the Virginia portion of Highway 53, rather than the International Falls end, because of fatalities between Cook and Virginia.

In the Falls to Virginia stretch, some of the factors that prompted the start of the project included: 93 no-passing zones; most of the intersections had no turn lanes; only two passing lanes; and an 18 percent volume of 18-wheel truck traffic versus a national average of 8 to 10 percent of traffic comprised of 18 wheelers.

A $30 million, two-year widening to four lanes on a 10 mile segment from the 53/169 Interchange to Rice River near Idington was completed last year. Between 2003 and 2005, work was completed at the 53/169 Interchange at a cost of $15 million.

The Highway 53 task force was created in 1997 as a coordinating project with the Minnesota Department of Transportation and cities and counties along Highway 53. Anderson noted that the project depends on action and meeting attendance by a large group of people. He commended MnDOT, Koochiching County Commissioners Chuck Lepper and Wade Pavleck, Rod Bergstrom of Bergstrom Wood Products, lobbyist Sante Esposito, state legislators and Oberstar for their work.

Oberstar, Anderson noted, has obtained $55 million for the project during his tenure in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

“In some ways it is a little bit easier for him because when you can get all the cities, and get the two counties that are involved, and you can get the state representatives and the state senators that represent these areas, and everybody is for this and nobody is against it; it’s pretty easy to go to Washington and get some dollars to put into this project,” Anderson said.

Anderson explained that funding for the project has been 80 percent from federal funds and 20 percent from the state of Minnesota.

Highway 11

“1997 — Highway 53; 2001 — Highway 11,” Koochiching County Commissioner Mike Hanson said to segue the projects, speaking of the inception dates. “We’re going to have a 10-ton road to Baudette. That's really significant in a lot of different ways.”

A project to improve Minnesota Highway 11 between highways 71 and 72 is already underway, with additional segments to be completed this summer.

This year, widening of the shoulder in the 18-mile area between Frontier Landing to Indus is expected to start in May and end in November.

Hanson noted that plans went out on Jan. 29 and bids for the work are expected to be open on Friday for the estimated $13-14 million project.

Detours are expected in this area while construction is underway, Hanson said, adding that fines have been instituted in contracts so that the project crews do not have roads shut down more than the allotted number of days.

And although Hanson did not have a complete list of detours and dates, he did say that complete road closures, forcing people to detour south towards Mizpah and around towards Highway 72, may be necessary.

Hanson explained that, for instance, during closings during this next segment, County Road 4 could prove a useful bypass for cars, but he mentioned safety and road wear as reasons that trucks may be forced in alternate directions. The example Hanson used is the way that solid waste is trucked towards Kittson County when Highway 11 road limits are imposed.

It was mentioned by Hanson and county Commissioner Chuck Lepper that wood, including about one-third used by the local Boise Inc. mill, moves down Highway 11.

Hanson said that when the Trunk Highway 11 Improvement Task Force proposed construction on the road to MnDOT, members wanted to ensure that it would meet the needs of the community.

“(There are) no shoulders on this road, very unsafe. It’s not 10-ton. We want you to move forward, but we want you to do it with some caveats. Keep in mind that there’s about 250,000 cords of wood come down Highway 11 every year. We wanted to preserve the scenic value. We wanted 10 tons. And we wanted to make minimal upgrades to have the least impact on the folks who live out there,” Hanson explained.

According to Hanson, MnDOT agreed and the project moved forward.

A $5 million improvement to Highway 11 between Clementson and Frontier Landing has already been completed, and Hanson noted that the work made a noticeable difference in the quality of the road.

Additional sections of the road are planned for construction to complete the 10-ton road between the Pelland junction and Baudette by 2014.

Hanson joked about the quality of the road, saying, “I don’t know how many of you have been on that road recently, but if you want to wreck your car come on out.”

He told a story about a field trip he planned for visiting state representatives, in which the officials took a school bus ride through the area, bumping and shaking along.

“When we let them off, each and every one of them said ‘We’re going to get you this money,’” Hanson said.

Like the Highway 53 improvement project, 80 percent of the funds on this project come from the federal government, while 20 percent is provided by the state.