The roadside parking area is located about a mile east of the Highways 14-15 interchange.

The site will be closed during construction. Highway 14 is already closed to motorists during the New Ulm to Nicollet four-lane expansion project.

While the 1938-39 wayside is not now eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, the project goal is to bring it to potentially eligible status, according to MnDOT.

It was built by the National Youth Administration, a federal New Deal work relief program during the Great Depression.

Staff photo by Fritz Busch Work to restore the New Ulm spring wayside on Highway 14 is planned to begin Monday, May 23, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The roadside stop is located about a mile east of the Highway 14/15 interchange.

Project work includes repairing the stone wall, walk, parking area with a new, curbed island and right in/right out access.

Two picnic areas up the slope will be restored with a natural surface trail connecting them. A new accessible picnic table will be added near the stone wall.

Interpretation, and improved accessibility will be included.

Environmental Associates was awarded the project with an $888,700 bid.

Project plans do not include restoring the actual spring that was closed decades ago due to contamination.

The hill above the rest area was a source of quartzite that was quarried nearby since 1859.

The original project was part of the 1938 Works Progress Administration (WPA), an ambitious employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, during the bleakest years of the Great Depression.

Other WPA architecture included the Johnson Park baseball field in New Ulm, the Hoover Dam, and the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

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