Latest news with #MelOdens
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Federal funding pause delays Kandiyohi County Road 55 project
May 31---- In 2023, the completed the diamond exchange that connects County Road 5 to Highway 23. To complete the next phase of the project, Kandiyohi County Public Works has been planning to construct a bridge in 2025 which would streamline the connection between County Road 55 and County Road 5 and eliminate an at-grade railroad crossing. The start date of the nearly $8 million project on the southwest edge of Willmar — the final piece in a years-long, multi-phase reconfiguration of the intersection — is uncertain after a pause in federal funding. More than half the project cost would be covered by a federal grant. The development of southwest Willmar began in 2006 when the Willmar Municipal Airport was moved to a location two miles farther west. This was done to provide more space for the airport and for the industrial development within the city, according to Kandiyohi County Public Works Director Mel Odens. The old airfield spanned areas that are now home to several of the newest businesses in the Willmar Industrial Park. Since the airport was moved, 11 other infrastructure projects have been completed in the area, including the Willmar Wye railroad bypass, multiple sewer and wastewater improvements and the relocation of the bridge over Highway 23 from its previous location at County Road 55 to its new location at County Road 5. These projects represented around $200 million worth of investment in southwest Willmar, according to Odens. The moving of the bridge was done, in part, to make room for ramps in the Highway 23 diamond exchange to be installed for easier access to County Road 5, which in turn reduces the distance trucks need to travel in order to access the industrial park. Before the ramps, trucks would need to drive to U.S. Highway 71 to enter the city and would then need to drive along roads not meant for vehicles of that size in order to reach the developing area, Odens explained in an interview. This took the trucks past several less-than-ideal locations, he said. "You have a school here, so the trucks are going by third-graders, we have businesses here, you have an eye clinic, a church, a memory facility. It doesn't coexist very well. So when the vision was coming together, it's like maybe we ought to pull these trucks off of this road," Odens said. Since the access point to Highway 23 was moved, County Road 55 needed a connection to the highway. To provide this, the county in 2020 constructed a temporary road which passed over the railroad tracks and curved around to connect with County Road 5 plus an extension connecting County Road 55 directly to Highway 23. This was the first phase of the current four-phase project. Phase two eliminated the southernmost portion of that road where it had intersected with Highway 23. That made way for the new ramps. This left the connection — still in use today — from County Road 55 to County Road 5 in an awkward state, with trucks needing to take a harsh turn in the process. To remedy this, phase three of the project aims to construct a bridge over the railroad to connect the two county roads. Public Works' planned project would build a 300-foot spanned bridge over the railroad tracks in the area southwest of Willmar. This bridge would tie into the interchange on Highway 23. The surfacing on the road going north to Highway 40 would be redone. "We have had to phase that intersection in. I know it is a sense of frustration with the public and the user, but we didn't want to detour traffic and funding sources weren't readily available. We couldn't just close it and do it all. We had to do a project. When our project was done, the state put the ramps on the interchange. Now we are going to come in for phase three and build the bridge up to the interchange," Odens said. This project is estimated to cost $7.8 million. Of that, $4.8 million in funding came through a discretionary grant, the Railroad Crossing Elimination federal grant. However, due to a pause in federal funding, the project has been placed on hold. "We have been working for loosely 10 years. When the lower bypass project was being planned, the plan was to put a bridge over the railroad tracks when the Willmar Wye was built. From 2016 on, this has been part of the vision of the county for a western bypass," Odens said in an interview. Odens found out about the federal funding delays at the end of January, at the start of the year when the project was set to take place. On Jan. 28, the Trump administration announced a pause on federal grants and loans, including funds for the local project. "We don't have those kinds of funds available. (If the pause isn't lifted), we would delay the project," Odens said previously. On May 6, Odens confirmed that the funds are in the process of being made available and the Kandiyohi County Public Works Department will have access to them soon, allowing the project to take place. He offered no updates during the County Board's most recent meeting on May 20. After the third phase is complete, the final phase that will be conducted by the Minnesota Department of Transportation will begin. The final piece is surface work on Highway 23 starting around 15th Street Southwest and going west past the County Road 5 bridge. Funding for the County Road 55 project comes from local, state and federal sources. The paused Railroad Crossing Elimination grant is administered by the Federal Railroad Administration, one of 10 agencies within the Department of Transportation.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Kandiyohi County plans to replace 12 bridges in next five years
Mar. 27---- Kandiyohi County has 120 bridges, 72 of them county bridges. Of these, 24 are timber bridges. On average, these timber bridges are 59 years old. While bridge maintenance and minor repairs are common, larger repairs do not happen as often. Recent changes to bridge inspection led to the closure of three timber bridges and weight restrictions being placed on others in 2024. In total, there are 17 bridges in that have been deemed eligible for replacement, meaning it has deteriorated to the point that it may receive additional funding for replacement. When a bridge becomes eligible for replacement, more state and federal funding sources become available. Posted bridges are safe for driving vehicles that do not exceed the weight limits. Exceeding those limits can apply undue pressure on the bridge which may cause damage to it. "When we look at all the bridges, (the closed bridges are) a small percentage of the bridges. We are already ahead of it," Kandiyohi County Public Works Director Mel Odens said in an interview Friday. Currently, plans are in place for 12 of the 17 timber bridges eligible for replacement to be replaced within five years. The other five bridges have had years assigned to them outside of the five-year plan, and are safe for traffic at the posted weight limits. These and other Public Works Department matters were discussed March 18 when the met specifically to address such topics, during what is often called the Road and Bridge meeting. In 2024, Kandiyohi County Public Works took on a new method of bridge inspection. Previously, inspections were conducted visually, checking the condition of the timber through knocking on the wood to listen for compromised sections. Under the new inspection method, inspectors drill into the timber to measure the quality and decay of the wood. "We did an advanced timber inspection last year to get a better handle on the remaining life of the timber support structure for these bridges. We had never done that before because it is a relatively newer system," Odens said. According to the presentation Odens made to the Kandiyohi County Board on March 18, large portions of timber in the closed and weight-restricted bridges were found to be hollow after a few inches of drilling. These support columns are around a foot in diameter. Odens presented data on one tested support which showed signs of decay through 5 inches of its diameter. This bridge is set to be replaced this year. "We evaluate the systems. The supports work together. There are redundancies in them. So if one member would fail or crack, there are others that would take over. We want to watch the system as a whole," Odens said in the interview Friday. It was through these inspections that Kandiyohi County Public Works found the 17 timber bridges eligible for replacement. The three closed bridges, located throughout southern Kandiyohi County, are scheduled to have work done in 2025 and 2026 to bring them back to operational condition. Work to repair a bridge located on County Road 80, north of , has been underway. Braces have been set up around the foundation of the bridge in order to support it. According to Odens, once temperatures remain above 34 degrees for at least a week, concrete will be poured to complete the repairs. These repairs should allow the bridge's lifespan to be extended another five to 10 years, at which point the bridge would be scheduled to be replaced. The repair project is expected to cost about $25,000, according to Odens. "We have got the forms up, ready to pour the concrete to encase the bad timbers. We haven't done it yet. We have to wait until it is above freezing," Odens said in the interview Friday. Also to be done in 2025 is work on a closed bridge on 75th Avenue Southwest, between and . This bridge is scheduled to be replaced this year with a box culvert. According to the five-year plan, this project will cost around $850,000. The final project on a closed bridge, a replacement for the bridge on 105th Avenue Southeast, just north of Big Kandiyohi Lake, is scheduled to take place in 2026 with an estimated cost of $550,000. The decision to complete this project in 2026 rather than 2025 came down to budgeting. It will remain closed until the project is complete. Two other bridge replacements are scheduled for 2026, one on County Road 27 and another on County Road 31. In 2027, four more bridge replacement projects are scheduled, followed by two more bridge projects in 2028 and 2029. The form of the replacement bridges in other projects has not been determined yet. According to Odens, each project will require its own planning and design which may lend itself to different kinds of bridges. "You have to match the channel width, you have to match the flooding. ... Every site gets evaluated independently. It will either be a bridge or a box culvert, but most of the time it is box culverts," Odens said. Of the 17 bridges identified as eligible for replacement, five are not scheduled within the five-year plan. These five bridges were left out due to budgeting constraints. However, according to Odens, if further inspections reveal accelerated deterioration, they may be moved up. The bridges remain safe for traffic within the posted weight limits. The cost to replace all 17 eligible timber bridges would total $10 million, according to the presentation last week.
