The Gateway New Ulm Project
March 19, 2018
New Ulm had its share of construction throughout the summer of 2017, blocking off Broadway for a span of nearly four months. Sadly, for local residents, the traffic cones aren’t going away anytime soon as the the intersection of Highway 14, 15 and County Road 21, commonly known as the Y intersection, prepares for a massive face lift.
The Y is notorious for being a nasty intersection as accidents are rather common and wait times at the stop signs can be long due to Highway 15 being a major access to Northern Minnesota. In addition to the intersection, the short distance across the river comes with it’s own problems, such as the obvious wear and tear the road has taken with heavy traffic. Being so low in the Minnesota River valley also poses a problem in early spring when the river rises and water completely takes over the land surrounding the bridge. There are also problems within city limits at the interchange of 7th North and Front Street with the exits not allowing much room to merge either direction. All of these problems will be addressed in the massive project known as the Gateway that will start preparation work throughout the spring.
The project has already started and most commuters notice the area has been cleared of trees, and cranes have already been moved into the area. The first phase of the two year project deals mostly within the city, more specifically on 7th North from Broadway towards the river, and should be completed by October later this year. The Front Street bridge will be replaced and 7th North will be resurfaced and changed from a four lane road into a two lane road with left turn lanes. The interchange on to Front Street will be updated by taking out the existing ramps on the south side of the bridge and creating a single lane roundabout where the current ramps meet. The ramp on the north side of the bridge will then serve all traffic wanting to go up onto 7th North and go either direction. “The roundabout should be done by this year,” said Tim Lankin, a worker with Bolton & Menk surveying and city planning who has been working with MnDOT to plan the project. He also added: “Everything within New Ulm should be ready by this fall,” meaning that 7th North and the new bridge can be used this year but only for going down to Front Street.
The other half of the project that deals with the bridge over the Minnesota River and leading north on Highway 15 will kick into full swing when everything gets closed down as a whole, which is expected to be in April, depending on the weather. Work on a new bridge will improve the structure and add a walking and biking trail that will lead up to the new intersection. The long process of soil reconstruction will start to raise the highway to get out of the potential flood plain. It was also known that this new new interchange would need more space to work with so the truck station midway up the hill just outside of town is being removed and replaced with a new station in Courtland.
The plan for the new intersection is to build an overpass over Highway 14 and County Road 21, also known as the Bottom Road, and then make exit ramps going each way to either exit or enter the highway below the bridge. The ends of these ramps are going to be teardrop shaped roundabouts that prevent traffic from trying to go left. “It’s pretty much the same thing that we see over in Nicollet, just reversed,” said Chris Chroray, who is also with Bolton & Menk. “It aims to improve traffic flow as well as lessen the steepness of the hill which has partly to blame for accidents.” The intersection will no longer require waiting as long or worrying about stopping on icy roads when commuting.
What this means for local residents is another major road in town blocked off for a whole summer, again. Those who come from north of town, such as the Klossner area, will have to allow more time to commute. Everything will be fully passable until April when 7th North closes and Highway 15 will be detoured to 20th South to enter New Ulm. This will be the case until the middle of the summer when the whole ‘Y’ intersection will be closed off and a detour from Klossner to Courtland will be put in place. The construction is expected to be completed in November of 2019. To view a construction staging map, click link below.