ABOVE: Truman Utility Foreman, Brent Brown, resident Karen Strausser and truman City Council Member Chad Truax listen to and speak with Bolton and Menk Project Representative and City of Truman Engineer Troy Nemmers about the Highway 15 sidewalk extension project on Wednesday. The extension is set to go from 1st Street South to to 3rd Street North on the east side of State Highway 15.

TRUMAN – Officials brought information on the State Highway 15 sidewalk extension project to the people of Truman on Wednesday.

The project is set to begin the week of May 18 and add new crosswalks, signage, ADA-compliant ramps and the sidewalk to a stretch between 1st Street South and 3rd Street North on the east side of Highway 15. This includes a flashing crosswalk sign at the current school crossing area.

“The city received some local partnership program funding from the state of Minnesota and MnDOT,” Bolton and Menk Project Representative and Truman City Engineer Troy Nemmers said. “The contract has been awarded. We met with the contractor last week and got their schedule. Nielsen out of Mankato is going to be doing the concrete sidewalk work.”

Resident Karen Strausser asked how this project all got started. Nemmers said it was a few years ago and prompted by the city.

“There were some questions about people walking down the long highway, kids walking along the highway, and really no place to go,” he said. “They (the council) reached out to MnDOT to see what options there were. MnDOT suggested this local partnership program, we submitted a grant application, then that was supportive of it and MnDOT awarded the grant funds to the city for the sidewalk improvements.”

There are some areas where the right-of-way will need to be made clear, and Nemmers said the owners of those properties will be contacted to ensure that is done.

“It is their anticipation this project will go relatively quickly,” he said. “They’re hoping to be done by the first week of July with everything. The only real impacts to property owners that I anticipate will be just if there’s a driveway, some driveway work, there’s some private work that we’re working with, and we’ll coordinate access and everything with the property owners there.”

Given this is a sidewalk project, Nemmers said people won’t be running out of sewer or water services like they might on a big street reconstruction project.

Strausser asked if the roads would be closed while construction is underway. Due to the scope of the project, Nemmers said they will not.

“They’re planning to do all the work within the shoulder,” he said. “The shoulder parking lane will be closed along the highway, but the traffic will not be affected on Highway 15. The traffic still should be able to get across all the intersections where there’s some curve repairs that are being done.”

On cost, Nemmers said they won’t know the minimum result until construction is done, but early indicators are promising.

“The bids came in almost $100,000 less than we anticipated,” he said. “That’s kind of the MnDOT portion of it that they’re paying for. There’s going to be some design fees, and some of that will be above and beyond what MnDOT’s paying for on this.”

After having the opportunity to address people’s concerns and share all the information, Nemmers said he has heard plenty of support for the project.

“It gives opportunity to get pedestrians off the highway,” he said. “It gives them a route on the east side of the city to connect from the school crossing to the north end to Dollar General and some of the other [places like] Casey’s up on the north end of town.”

For any questions or concerns, contact Nemmers at 507-238-4738 or troy.nemmers@bolton-menk.com