01-26-2004 Council Special Minutes

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MINUTT;S CITY COUNCIL JANUARY 26, 2004 estimated at $120 million ($113 million for construction and $7 million for the remaining engineering costs). Pafko reported that the project will be constructed in two stages. The first stage includes the replacement of the Edgerton bridge. MN DOT is planning to award bids at the end of February with construction to start in the spring of this year. As part of this stage and due to the fact that the Edgerton bridge will be raised by three feet, road work on Edgerton Street, Cowrty Road D, and Vadnais Road will also be done to tie in grades. The bids for this work will be awarded in July and completed by November of 2004. This stage will also include work on the 694 bridge over Highway 61 to provide for two-way traffic on that bridge. Pafko reported that the second stage of the project involves the work on 3SE and 694. Bid letting wi(1 occur in December of 2004 with construction to begin in spring of 2005. This project will take three construction seasons to complete. During 2005 most of the work will occur off the main fieeway line and include placing pavement and bridges in areas that are currently not occupied by pavement and bridges. During 2006 and 2007 the work within the existing traffic areas will occur. There will be one major detour designated while this work is occurring, and that will be an alternative route utilizing County Road E to Highway 61 to 694. Given this detour designation, the intersection of County Road E and Highway 61 will be reconstructed during 2005 to add turning lanes. Paflco reported that as part of the 2006 and 2007 construction, the Little Canada.Road ramps will be detoured for a number of weeks. Only one ramp will be closed down at a time and notices will be posted ahead of schedule. Paflco explained that in early 2006 as freeway traffic lane work commences, it will be necessary to divert traffc going north on 3SE and west on 694. This traffic will be rerouted via the "Edgerton by-pass" which will involve traffic heading north on 3SE to the Edgerton bridge, up on a temporary by-pass lane onto the bridge and then back down onto 694 heading west. When the Edgerton bridge is reconstructed, it will be a three-lane bridge. One of these lanes will be utilized for a period of time as a "by-pass" lane for the freeway. "Phis land will be separated from the regular traffic heading over the bridge. Paflco indicated that utilizing this by-pass will save one year in construction time for the total project. With regvd to the City's traffic concerns, Paflco reported that MN DOT is hying to keep as much traffic on the freeway as possible. However, when traffic bottlenecks, drivers will try to find other routes. During the three- year project, and especially during 2006 and 2007, this will occur. Pafko 2