Update heard on roads, bridges
CR 22, TH 4 intersection draw concerns at county board meeting
Journal file photo Brown County Highway 10, also known as the “River Bottom Road” on the northern edge of Brown County pictured above, was closed due to Minnesota River flooding last spring. The road was closed again this spring due to river flooding.
Staff photo by Fritz Busch Brown County Commissioners discussed Tuesday what could be done to improve safety issues at the intersection of CR 22 and TH 4, six miles south of Sleepy Eye. A number of crashes have happened at the intersection.
Journal file photo Brown County Highway 10, also known as the “River Bottom Road” on the northern edge of Brown County pictured above, was closed due to Minnesota River flooding last spring. The road was closed again this spring due to river flooding.
Staff photo by Fritz Busch Brown County Commissioners discussed Tuesday what could be done to improve safety issues at the intersection of CR 22 and TH 4, six miles south of Sleepy Eye. A number of crashes have happened at the intersection.
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NEW ULM -- Brown County Commissioners discussed a variety of topics regarding county roads and bridges during the monthly highway department update Tuesday.
Brown County Highway Engineer Wayne Stevens said all substructures, piers and abutments were built and beams were set for Bridge 2110 that replaced the century-old CSAH 8 Hale or Petersen Bridge over the Minnesota River west of TH 4 before the Minnesota River rose over flood stage several weeks ago.
Stevens said the roads to the new $4 million, 10-ton bridge built for 10-year floods were underwater this spring but the bridge, said to be built for 100-year floods, was not underwater.
"The (Minnesota River) water has gone down a lot," Stevens said. "Most of the road could be open but it's pretty muddy and needs a lot of drying. We were out there grading it."
Predicted to be complete this fall, the bridge replaces the pony style truss bridge that was one of the few remaining truss bridges on the lower Minnesota River and one of the few bridges on the river that was served by a gravel road.
The old bridge was purchased for $1 by Washington County and transported to Lake Elmo Park Preserve for reuse as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over a small lake.
Bridge replacement and approach work was funded with federal funds, bridge bonds and state aid funds. Brown and Renville counties are sharing some project costs.
The bridge replacement project began several years ago when Franklin Fire Department members told commissioners the bridge needed to be replaced to improve emergency response times and could be used to drive modern farm implements on roads other than TH 4 over the Minnesota River that has "challenging guard rails" according to firefighter Joel Harmoning.
Stevens said the Sigel Township bridge DNR permit came through.
STevens said the CSAH 10 gravel (Minnesota River) bottom road west of TH 4 was flooded. He estimated the cost to improve about 1,600 feet of the road to keep it from flooding was about $220,000.
"This is an opportunity to fix our county road," said Commissioner Braun, who said he got a phone call about the Minnesota River bottom road and TH 4 and CR 22 intersection, where a number of crashes have happened.
Stevens said he would bring a current project cost estimate for improving the river bottom road to a future board meeting.
Stevens said he has talked to a state traffic engineer about adding lights to the CR 22/TH 4 intersection at an estimated $330,000 cost, but that most of the crashes happen in the daytime. Stop signs are posted on CR 22.
Commissioner Tony Berg suggested adding signage.
Commissioner Windschitl mentioned signs with arrows prompting drivers to "look again."
Stevens said he would contact a state highway engineer about the issue.