Until political pressure was applied this year, MnDOT appeared to be moving toward a middle route option, citing concerns that blasting of sulfide-bearing rocks along the south route would create environmental permitting obstacles. Kalnbach also said that MnDOT is considering two alternatives involving the middle route - one calling for a detour of traffic on 169 and another without.Ĭurrent plans call for MnDOT to take public comments in the fall and select a route by November or December.Īnd while local officials have overwhelmingly backed the south route and have opposed options that would result in traffic detours, both the middle route and a detour remain in the mix for consideration. Rick Nolan, and a less-expensive $17.3 million option dubbed the “middle route.” Still to be determined is the reconstruction route, as MnDOT weighs options including a $21.6 million southern realignment favored by the task force, local officials and U.S. MnDOT project manager Michael Kalnbach couldn’t be reached prior to deadline, but in correspondence to task force officials, he indicated that current plans now call for the project to be let in February, 2017, with construction on the five-and-a-half mile stretch in the Six Mile Lake and Eagles Nest areas to begin later that year. That’s a year later than estimated last fall, when members of a local task force and other interested citizens met with representatives of the Minnesota Department of Transportation. A major realignment of Highway 169 between Ely and Soudan won’t begin until 2017 at the earliest, according to state transportation officials.
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