MANKATO — For local drivers wishing more roads would be closed for construction, there’s good news coming.
Portions of Main Street will be detoured for pavement resurfacing on Mankato’s hilltop starting May 26 and lasting for three months.
The start of the project was intentionally delayed until school let out for the summer, and the construction contract won by WW Blacktopping with a bid of $1.86 million requires substantial completion by Sept. 4.
The contractor will be replacing the severely deteriorated driving surface on Main Street from Hannah Street at the top of the Main Street hill to Victory Drive, along with making pedestrian safety improvements on the 1.1 mile segment.
While construction is expected to run nearly from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the entire stretch won’t be closed the entire time. The plan is to do the work in three equal phases, each lasting 28 days, starting with the middle segment, although through-traffic will be encouraged to use a detour that avoids the entire construction zone for the entire summer.
Phase 1 will be from Garden Boulevard on the southwest edge of the hospital complex to Agency Road. Phase 2 will cover Garden Boulevard west to Hannah Street. The final phase is on the eastern end of the project from Agency to Victory.
The segments can be completed in less than a month because water and sewer pipes don’t need to be replaced, avoiding the deep excavation required when major utilities are worn out. But the project will bring substantial pedestrian improvements, including to sidewalks and to key crosswalks. Traffic signal upgrades are planned at the Division Street intersection, including traffic cameras to detect when vehicles are present and awaiting a green light and crosswalk buttons for pedestrians looking for extra time to cross Main or Division.
Pedestrian-activated flashing lights, plus curb bump-outs, were included in the bid specifications for the Electa Boulevard crossing, which leads to the Washington Elementary School area. Curb bump-outs and a pedestrian refuge median are planned at Dickinson Street and Marion Lane, respectively.
City staff have been coordinating with residents, property owners and the hospital to plan everything from mail delivery to garbage pickup to ambulance access. Because of the traffic that will be added to alternate routes, temporary stop signs are being added to halt vehicles from every direction at the Dane Street-Marsh Street intersection and at the junction of Glenwood Avenue and Agency Road.
The bid from WW Blacktopping, which also covers pavement work on a city access road to a 3 million gallon water reservoir off of Val Imm Drive, came in nearly $300,000 below the city engineer’s estimate for the project.
The Main Street closure joins several others in the Mankato area shutting down for repairs this construction season, including the east end of Belgrade Avenue, the Veterans Memorial Bridge, Highway 22 north of Mankato and, starting soon, Third Avenue between Riverfront Drive and Highway 14.