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Highway 15 work: funds tied up

FAIRMONT — At the last meeting of the Martin County commissioners, news broke that the upcoming Highway 15 construction project in Fairmont has hit a bump in the road.

Original plans called for work on the $6 million project through the city to begin this summer, with the construction expected to be completed within the year. However, due to a snag in the Minnesota Legislature, the project now faces a delay for an unknown period of time.

The federal government annually allocates funding for transportation projects in the state, but the Minnesota Department of Transportation cannot spend the funds without the budget authority of the Legislature. MnDOT spokeswoman Rebecca Arndt was able to give a brief history of the situation:

“The federal FAST Act was passed late in calendar 2015,” she said, referring to the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act signed by former President Obama.

That act provided Minnesota with $105 million in federal funds.

“It is federal money, but we (MnDOT) need legislative budget authority to actually spend it, and that’s it in a nutshell,” Arndt continued. “That spending authority was not granted in the 2016 legislative session, and MnDOT’s appeal to the legislative advisory commission in October to spend those funds was objected to by the former chair of the House transportation committee. So we’re just adjusting our fiscal year lettings and we continue to seek legislative authority to spend those funds.”

Arndt’s words confirm previous statements made by Martin County Engineer Kevin Peyman, who informed county commissioners about the issue. Peyman and Fairmont Director of Public Works and City Engineer Troy Nemmers this week discussed the delay and its potential impact on the project.

“It really depends when it gets started,” Nemmers said. “That’s a decision MnDOT will have to make if the funding gets approved, whether or not they start this fall. I think MnDOT is really focusing on trying to get the work done in one construction season, whether that’s 2017 or 2018.”

Peyman noted there currently are three options available.

“There’s still a chance it could all be done in 2017; it could wait to start in 2018 and finish in that year; or there’s a chance it could start in 2017, but it wouldn’t finish until 2018.”

“There’s a lot of different components to the project from signals to [Americans with Disabilities Act] improvements, to the actual street repair,” Nemmers said. “Once they know when the funding is available, then they can work the clock backwards from when the completion date would be to all the phases of the project.”

Nemmers said access to the various businesses along the route is still going to remain open, and will not be affected by any potential time delay.

“I don’t think it’s going to be any more of a headache if it spreads out over two years,” he said. “There’s going to be some impacts, but they really are trying to focus on breaking it up into segments. They’re committed to maintaining business access throughout the project.”

Peyman and Nemmers agree that the bigger impact will likely come from the upcoming I-90 bridge repair project, which is still on schedule to begin in May.

“The Highway 15 project will be an inconvenience but it will be open to traffic, whereas it’s hard to keep bridges open to traffic, with the ramps being closed at one point or another. So some of the restaurants and hotels may experience some impacts.”

Nemmers noted that the Interstate project was scheduled for 2016, but it was delayed in order to coincide with the Highway 15 project, in order to help minimize the amount of time businesses and traffic will be affected, as well as allow the projects to coordinated on detours and the like.

An open house to share information on the Interstate 90 construction project has been scheduled from 4-6 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Holiday Inn in Fairmont. MnDOT staff and the contractor will be on hand to answer questions and share construction information, including staging and closures at various interchanges.

While I-90 traffic will be maintained with two lanes of two-way traffic, ramps at interchanges impacted at varying times during the May to August construction include Highway 263, Martin County Road 39 and Highway 15, according to a recent press release from MnDOT.

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