MANKATO — Barring an extended delay because of rain, the $2.8 million Victory Drive reconstruction project should wrap up and reopen to traffic soon, just in time for the start of classes at nearby K-12 schools and at Minnesota State University.
Although last week Blue Earth County Public Works Director Ryan Thilges said it looked like Saturday, Aug. 23, would be the highway reopening target, he backed off that prediction a bit on Thursday and said the recent rain has made that less certain.
This year’s work was the second phase of a $5.8 million project that disrupted traffic flow for two construction seasons between the valley and hilltop portions of Mankato, including to nearby K-12 schools such as East High School and Kennedy Elementary. Victory Drive is also an important route in the flow of students and staff to Minnesota State University, just over a mile southwest of the construction zone.
Phase 2 construction forced drivers using Main and Fair streets as well as Victory to take detours. A year ago, Phase 1 detours disrupted Victory plus Hoffman Road and Glenwood Avenue. The two-year project followed a $3.2 million upgrade in 2021 of the southern segment of Victory Drive, stretching from just south of Hoffman Road to Stadium Road.
When the road reopens, drivers won’t see major design changes resulting from this year’s work — just a much smoother ride following the complete reconstruction of the road surface and the replacement of “severely deteriorated pavement,” Thilges said.
Although the semaphores at Main were replaced with modern signal systems, the layout of intersections at Main and Fair were not redesigned. A project feasibility study for the entire Victory Drive reconstruction found that crashes were a problem at Main Street but attributed that to lousy driving rather than any issues with the intersection design.
“After reviewing the crash reports in detail, it was determined that almost 40% of the crashes occurred after a vehicle ran a red light,” according to the study.
The first-half of the project completed in 2024, by contrast, brought substantial changes to the layout of the intersection of Victory and Hoffman Road, which was both crash-prone and congested when classes ended for the day at East High School. Lanes were added to all four quadrants of the intersection to allow for a dedicated turn lanes and dedicated through-traffic lanes for every direction of travel.
The goal for this year’s work was to have Victory open to traffic before the start of the academic year, which is Monday for MSU. Mankato Area Public Schools has a staggered start of classes depending on grade level, with ninth graders having the same first day as MSU. The first day for other K-12 grades is either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Because the final stage of the construction project involves finishing touches like lane striping and landscaping along the road’s right-of-way, the work requires dry conditions. So the rainy stretch could push the reopening date into that first week of school.
The good news — following $9 million of investment and Victory Drive closures for three summers out of five — is one of Mankato’s most important north-south routes now has new or relatively new long-lasting concrete pavement from one end of the city to the other.
“This should be the conclusion for any major improvements on Victory for some time,” Thilges said.
He cautioned there might be some pavement repairs in the Home Depot-Menard’s area on the north end in coming years, but those won’t require detours.
Although drivers who use Victory will be in for detour-free summers, the county is not done fixing up the roads it owns within Mankato’s city limits. Next year will bring the complete reconstruction of Third Avenue from Riverfront Drive to Highway 14.
The county also will be reconstructing County Road 69 in LeHillier, the Minnesota Department of Transportation will be shutting down Veterans Memorial Bridge for major repairs between Mankato and North Mankato, and North Mankato will be doing a makeover of a portion of Belgrade Avenue. The second year of the two-year reconstruction of Highway 22 between Mankato and St. Peter also will resume next spring.
Staff writer Ethan Becker contributed to this story.