ABOVE: Lake Avenue in Fairmont is currently under construction which is expected to last through late November.

FAIRMONT– Many people will have noticed that construction work on Lake Avenue in Fairmont is well underway. Work on the project began on June 9 and is expected to wrap up around Nov. 21

The project entails a total reconstruction from Fairlakes Road to Bixby Road. This includes a new concrete road surface with curb and gutter, new water main and service connections to the curb stops, sanitary sewer main and service connections to the property line and new sewers.

Public Works Director, Matthew York, said that Lake Avenue was originally a county highway going through town. The infrastructure was installed between 1966 and 1970 and the new road was laid in 1970.

“It was initially a concrete road but was overlaid with asphalt sometime in the mid 1990s,” York said.

The work comes now as it well overdue for some improvements. York shared that the roadway is currently rated at 12.8 out of 100 in the condition index.

“Also, the road was extremely wide and by narrowing it from 52 feet to 44 feet, it will feel more like a city road and not a county highway,” York said.

He said that Minnesota Energy has also been working in this area to replace the gas mains and their service connections.

As there are a number of businesses on Lake Avenue, York said ICON LLC, the contractor on the project, is responsible for ensuring business access.

“Our goal is to have a two-way access throughout the entirety of the project, but there will be times when this will not happen due to different stages of construction,” York said.

The total project cost is nearly $6.4 million, which includes legal, administration and engineering costs. However, the city got a $1.5 million Local Road Improvement Grant to go toward the project and it’s using nearly $2.6 million in Municipal State Aid Street Funds. To round it out, about $1.4 million in bonding improvement funds and $943,000 in direct assessments are being used to fund the project.

This is one of the bigger road construction projects Fairmont has done in recent years. Last year’s Park Street project was 1,282 linear feet of asphalt with a contract cost of $1.3 million, or $1,050 per linear foot.

This year’s Lake Avenue project is 4,060 linear feet of concrete with a contract cost of $6.4 million or $1,576 per linear foot.

“We knew that the cost was going to be higher, but the maintenance is also lower moving forward,” York said.

The Fairmont City Council had approved doing the project with concrete at its Oct. 28, 2024 meeting.