In the North Metro crews are busy upgrading Minnesota State Highway 65 in Ham Lake.
“We’re doing our final touches on the southbound lanes of Highway 65 at Coon Creek bridge and we will be reopening the southbound lanes of Highway 65 to a single lane in each direction on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning,” said Kent Barnard of MnDOT.
From there, MnDOT is going to focus on another part of the road.
“At that time we are going to flop over to the northbound lanes,” Barnard said. “We are going to start demolition and reconstruction of the northbound Coon Creek bridge.”
For MnDOT this is part of a 16-mile long project that has a $44 million tab.
Said Barnard: “That’s a lot of money.”
Despite the delays and detours, Barnard says he hasn’t gotten many complaints and that the 65 project is going smoothly.
Construction ecosystem
Next to the orange barrels inside the work zone is a construction ecosystem.
There are side dump trucks, earth movers and other gigantic equipment operating simultaneously. A mountain of work is getting done on Highway 65 next to Coon Creek. MnDOT is making up for lost time after dealing with delays because of spring rain.
“We also had some utility issues we had to work through,” Barnard said. “We did some dewatering which with extra rain required more dewatering to be able to work out here and get those box culverts in to make bridges. But at this point with the weather we’ve been having we’ve been able to make some great progress out here. We’re going to be putting up some guard rails and things like that out here in the next few weeks too. But you won’t see a bridge here really. You’re going to be driving on the pavement or going over the box culverts in this area.”
Most of the project should be finished in October. Highway 65 is a heavily traveled road and is just as busy as I-35W and I-35 in the North Metro.
“There’s a lot of traffic that uses this road,” Barnard said. “It’s a major commuter route into and out of the Twin Cities. We’ve got to keep these roads in great shape for people.”
Of course MnDOT wants drivers to give road workers a brake when they are in a cone zone.
“I’d just like to thank people for their patience on this project and for driving safely out here and making sure that they make it home and our workers make it home,” Barnard said. “When we’re done you’re going to have a nice, smooth roadway for many years to come.”
