Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Todd Kjolstad with MnDOT gave an overview on recent road construction projects at the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce’s Hot Topics lunch Friday at the New Ulm Country Club.

NEW ULM — Road construction was the hot topic at the New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce’s Hot Topic Lunch. MnDOT representative Todd Kjolstad gave an update on the Hwy 14/15 interchange construction and answered questions from the public.

Kjolstad began his talk by explaining some of the setback faced by construction crews in the last year. He said every MnDOT project is impacted by weather and this year the river influenced a lot of the construction setbacks. In 2018, the construction zone was flooded out a six times through October.

In town, there was contaminated soil issues associated with construction. Kjolstad said there were more petroleum products in the soil than expected.

MnDOT is still determining whether to use seed or sod for the in-town landscaping. Kjolstad said they are having trouble with the seed taking to the soil.

The 2018 bridge construction was scheduled to begin the first of April but was delayed by heavy snow.

“When we came up with the schedule we never thought April would have two blizzards,” Kjolstad said.

MnDOT will be focusing on finishing the river portion of the project. In spring of 2019, the 14/15 interchange construction will begin and a detour will be established for traffic heading to Klossner. The original plan was to reroute traffic to Courtland and north along Hwy 12, but with the flooding on County 12 the detour was moved to County 21.

Kjolstad anticipated construction and the detour will begin in March or April 2019, but said this depends on weather.

Kjolstad was asked about the conditions of the 7th North bridge over Front Street. Many people have complained about the rough conditions.

Kjolstad said this will improve over time. The reason for the rough surface was an indirect consequence of the wrong beams being sent during bridge construction.

Part way through the construction of the bridge the construction crews determined an adjustment plate in the beam was the wrong size, preventing expansion and contraction of bridge material. Without this the bridge could not be properly maintained.

The beams were sent back to the manufacturer in exchange for the correct beams, but this delayed installation and concrete pouring began during the reinforcement phase.

Typically concrete is place starting from a higher elevation to a lower elevation to make it smoother, but the construction crew was unable to do this.

Kjolstad said concrete continue to get stronger over time; especially in the first month. For this reason MnDOT decided not to rip up the concrete. Kjolstad said the snow and salt over the winter could correct some of the problem. If not they might smooth it out in spring.

Kjolstad briefly spoke on the Highway improvements from Nicollet to New Ulm. He said there is great interest in finishing this project. MnDOT has a design in place for this project, it is now a question of securing funding.

“The folks who have their ducks in a row are able to get their hands on [money],” he said.

New Ulm Mayor Bob Beussman attended the meeting and said MnDOT has worked out a design that will allow Minnesota Valley Lutheran to keep its baseball fields.

Information on the New Ulm 14/15 Gateway project is available on New Ulm’s city website. The public may attend weekly constructions meetings on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. at 1800 S. Valley Street.