Engineer says Highway 18 work will be finished soon

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State Highway 18 west of Olivet should be open by mid-October, according to a state highway engineer.

The section of Highway 18 from Highway 25 to the west edge of town has been closed since May for a bridge replacement at Lone Tree Creek, about a half-mile west of Olivet.

The bridge replacement is part of a $3.27 million project that also includes repairs to the deck of the main bridge across the James River just east of Olivet; the installation of curb and gutter and the repaving of Highway 18 through Olivet; and the complete regrading and widening of 1.6 miles of Highway 18 from Olivet to Highway 25.

That bridge portion project is nearing completion, said state Department of Transportation engineer Ron Peterson, but several other phases of the project must be completed.

“The end is in sight — if Mother Nature cooperates,” Peterson said. That’s none too soon for area residents who have been forced to take sometimes circuitous detours to get around the work area.

Hutchinson County Sheriff Jim Zeeb said his office has been fielding complaints on the road closure for the past month.

“It’s getting ridiculous,” Zeeb said. The highway is a major route used by area residents to reach the northsouth thoroughfares of Highway 37 to the west and Highway 81 to the east.

The major bottleneck was caused by the removal, and replacement, of a narrow WPA-era bridge at Lone Tree Creek, which was situated in a narrow hollow between Olivet and state Highway 25.

While public perception may be that the project is dragging on, the contractors are still within the time parameters set by the original contract, Peterson said.

“There’s just a lot of work,” he said. “Oct. 15 is our seasonal limit for the paving portion of the project. Barring any further problems with Mother Nature, the grading and the asphalt paving should be complete and we’ll have the roadway back open.”

All details of the project must be finished by Dec. 3, he said.

On projects of this magnitude the DOT usually allows an entire construction season to give the main contractor enough time to work out schedules with subcontractors. The official start date of the project was May 19, Peterson said.

The bridge across Lone Creek was removed early on. Originally, said Peterson, road grading was scheduled to be completed at the time the bridge was removed, but that leg of the project was delayed by heavy rains that kept the road building equipment elsewhere in the state.

“The highway contractor originally anticipated being on that project by the first of July, but he wasn’t there until the first of September,” he said. “That two months of lost time elsewhere is what gives the appearance of delay on this project.”

There was nothing in the contract that said the bridge could not be closed during construction, he said.

Lee Friesen, whose home is on the south side of Highway 18 just west of the Lone Tree bridge, agreed that it has been a long summer, but bridge workers employed by Grangaard Construction of Watertown — the principal contractor for the project — have done their best to accommodate his family during the construction period.

“We’re the only people who live on that stretch, and so far we’ve managed,” he said. “It’s made for some quite interesting days, but the crews have been very good about doing the best they can to get us in and out.”

The bridge was closed in anticipation that road milling and grading would begin July 1. Then the rains came, said Peterson. “And then more rain, and that puts us where we’re at today.”

The problems piled up.

Friesen said that early on, a spring flood washed out a culvert in a diversion road near the new bridge, which meant the road had to be re-built so equipment could reach both sides of the bridge.

The rains also closed some alternate routes, further testing the patience of area residents.

A county box culvert project on old Highway 25 north of Highway 18 closed the road north for a time and “that made it more inconvenient for the residents of Menno and Olivet to get around and to get to points east and west,” Peterson said.

For several weeks, high water flooded Highway 44 at Mayer Lake, a low-lying section of the highway 17 miles east of Parkston

Highway 44 will be open this weekend, however, which will allow traffic to use that roadway to get to the annual Menno Power Show.

Gravel fill was added as a temporary fix, but Peterson said a more permanent repair will happen in the next few weeks.

The DOT this week awarded a contract to Midwest Contracting of Marshall, Minn., to raise the flood-prone section of road, he said, but doing so will again shut down Highway 44 for a time. The improvements will raise the grade of the roadway by 5 feet and get it out of the water permanently, Peterson said.

That project will likely begin next week and must be completed by Oct. 29, he said.

State detours around the work at Olivet are on northsouth state Highways 25, 37 and 81, but locals acknowledged Peterson, are free to take the shortest routes they can find.

Lee Friesen was philosophical about the delays.

“Considering the size of the project and as much water as we’ve had this summer, they’ve really done well,” he said.

“For us, it’s an inconvenience for a few months, but what the state highway department is trying to do is going to benefit the area for years to come,” he said.

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