Herald Journal Blog

MnDOT announced that work on the Highway 7 construction project is set to begin April 14 and be done by Nov. 15. I hope they will be able to stick to this timetable because road construction is extremely inconvenient for everyone. If it takes too long, it can ruin businesses along the road. The timetable also assumes everything goes perfectly. It might not. McLeod County Road 2, north of Highway 7 took twice as long as predicted last year. When it came time in the fall to put the concrete on the road, the contractor feared it would be too cold, and delayed finishing the road until the following summer. Also, remember the Mega Storm of 1991. Before the storm hit. Linden Avenue in Winsted was under construction. When the contractor removed the top layer of dirt, it found bad subsoil underneath, something no one expected. Before the contractor had a chance to fix the subsoil problem, the storm hit Oct. 31, it turned very cold, and residents on the street had to wait until the following year for the project to be finished. The weather and unforeseen circumstances can really throw a monkey wrench in the project’s timetable.