St. Peter toasts new highway

Highway project called ‘done,’ although no vehicles just yet

By Robb Murray

ST PETER — That wind felt in St. Peter Saturday afternoon?

That was the collective exhaling of a city where townspeople are tired of the “daily detour,” and where businesses desperately want things back to normal.

After 133 days and 28,000 tons of concrete, the most talked-about construction project in the region — the one that shut down the city’s main drag for months — is finally over.

For the most part.

Cars still can’t drive down it, but the project is basically done, and that’s enough for a celebration.

Saturday was the day as the city held a party to celebrate the end of the madness.

“It’s very exciting for us,” St. Peter Mayor Tim Strand said moments before his address to the hundreds gathered on Minnesota Avenue, the heart of Highway 169 in downtown. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Dave Nieman, owner of the town’s Ace Hardware store, said the reopening of St. Peter’s primary thoroughfare couldn’t have come too soon.

“I don’t think anybody is happier than the businesses on Main Street that this project is done,” Nieman said.

St. Peter’s road construction project cost about $17 million, and was the first in the state to use federal economic stimulus money. It employed about 300 workers.

The road to completion, however, didn’t come without a few potholes, the most notable of which may have been the traffic delays.

Strand said one of the worst traffic backups the construction ever produced took place Friday. For the better part of the day, he said, traffic was backed up for blocks on both ends of town.

On Saturday, the road was open for foot traffic. Vehicles, however, probably won’t get to test it out until closer to Thanksgiving.

Closing Minnesota Avenue in St. Peter is a little like shutting down the rides at Disney World. So much of the town’s identity — unique shops, locally owned business, several dozen buildings on the National Register of Historic Places — can be found here.

But that’s precisely why the upgrade was so necessary. Now the road is strong. Water and sewer mains have been replaced. And its design team did what it could to make curbs and medians be as attractive as curbs and medians can be by incorporating Kasota stone where possible. Come spring, trees and shrubs will help spruce the place up.

“I look forward to seeing what it’s going to look like in the spring,” Nieman said. “My goal is to go out and buy a T-shirt that says ‘I survived the construction of 2009.’”

Terry Morrow, a state legislator who represents St. Peter and lives on one of the detour routes, said he hopes the project’s completion can allow St. Peter to return to its pre-construction ways.

“I look forward to seeing you all down here shopping, being a community,” he said.

Congressman Tim Walz said that when a sink hole fell in and created a massive traffic problem, he was in his car, behind the delay.

And on Friday, when St. Peter saw perhaps its worst construction-related traffic day, he was behind that, as well.

“So there is justice,” he joked.

Walz, who along with others helped get the stimulus funds to make the project possible, said the project was an investment for the community’s future.

“Thank you so much for your patience on this,” he told the gathering. “Spend money here today and get your shopping done.”

Greg Ous, of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, said it was “phenomenal” that everything came together to get the project done in 133 days.

And Jim Swanson, also of MnDOT, rattled off a list of numbers that showed how mind-boggling a project like this can be.

Four miles of pipe, three miles of sidewalk, 180 new signs, 200 temporary signs, 332 shrubs, 1,604 perennials, 480 annuals, 61 tree grates.

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