On April 28, the Highway 61 Open for Business meeting took place at the Hastings Golf Club. The Hastings Area
Chamber of Commerce hosted the event for business proprietors to be informed about the HWY 61 road construction project set for early 2028. MnDOT project manager Robert Jones and MnDOT South Area Manager Bryant Ficek presented an overview of the HWY 61 project and delivered timelines.
The HWY 61 construction contractor is Shaffer-Hoffman LLC. There will also be a hybrid team of nine consultants, along with MnDOT staff taking the lead for the design delivery contract.
The HWY 61 construction will take place north of 3rd Street and south of 36th Street.
$41M is the current construction estimate, and the current funding obtained is $21.7M.
The City of Hastings and MnDOT are pursuing additional funding by way of MnDOT’s BUILD grant, Safe Streets For All grant, and Local Partnership Program.
If not fully funded, the MnDOT team pointed out that elements of the HWY 61 plan can be scaled back, such as the planned pedestrian bridge, which Ficek pointed out; eliminating this element could cut costs by $1M.
Hastings Public Works Director Ryan Stempski answered questions about service line replacement that will coincide with the road construction.
A business owner inquired about the replacement of the utilities. Director Stempski explained the process.
(Actuality 1)
The business owner followed up with a secondary question, inquiring if the city is unable to connect to a service line, would the line need replacing?
Director Stempski pointed out that the city has “conversion materials” to retrofit connections to existing service lines.
Some projects along HWY 61 can be done sooner than the road construction. One of those independent projects could be the Todd Field wall.
KDWA connected with MnDOT South Area Manager Bryant Ficek about the reconstruction of the Todd Field wall.
(Actuality 2)
MnDOT’s HWY 61 construction project.
[Click the soundbite to listen to the full report.]