Staff photo by Fritz Busch Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) maintenance worker Mike Slater, left; and leadman Mike O’Rourke stand in front of a 2,000 ton pile of salt and Beet Heet at the new MnDOT Courtland Truck Station Tuesday.

NEW ULM — The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) celebrated its new $3.5 million Courtland Truck Station with an open house Tuesday night.

The nine-acre site replaces a former truck station near the New Ulm Highway 14/15 (Y) interchange that was demolished due to the New Ulm Gateway Project now underway.

The new site houses four trucks and may hold five plus a tow plow in the future. Five full-time employees man the site with supplemental staff added for winter snow and ice operations.

In addition, the site houses five State Patrol troopers in an office with locker facilities.

The site features LED lights, a high-efficiency boiler with in-floor heating and variable speed pumps and motors. A complete drive-through wash bay has four manual pressure wands.

A 7,000 square feet fabric salt shed with covered loading now houses 2,000 pounds of salt and Beet Heet concentrate, an organic-based, corrosion inhibited, liquid de-icer with highly-refined carbohydrate concentrate, two exothermic and two non-exothermic chlorides.

The ready-to-use salt pre-wetting agent is designed for below freezing temperatures and smells like chocolate, syrup and coffee.

“We’re excited about having this ready for the new highway projects around here. We’ll be right in the middle of them,” said MnDOT District 7 Assistant District Maintenance Operations Engineer Jed Falgren.

In addition, Falgren said it’s great to have the Minnesota State Patrol on site, especially during inclement weather and dealing with crashes.

Falgren said the Courtland Truck Station will service Brown, Nicollet and parts of Sibley Counties. It’s responsible for the maintenance of Highway 15 from Madelia to Winthrop, Highway 14 from Sleepy Eye to North Mankato, including Highways 14/15 in New Ulm and Highway 257 to Hanska.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.