MnDOT Won't Commit To Schedule For Projects Such as Albertville Interchange

Imagine a road project delayed by three weeks of rain. Or snow. 

The frustration would be palpable. The mess would take as much time to clean up as the original layoff. And the public would wonder "what's taking so long?"

Now, check out the government shutdown. 

The government-forced three week layoff, caused the failure of the Minnesota Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton to negotiate its way to common ground, set the 2011 construction season back more than just those 20 days. 

It's going to take nearly as long to get back on track, the agency said last week. 

That's not good news for the Interstate 94 interchange at Albertville. 

A project getting back underwater will depend on various factors including if equipment was moved, and how long it will take contractors mobilize manpower. 

"Every project will be different...work on some projects will start quickly, others will take longer," Kevin Gutknecht, MnDOT spokesman said. 

Albertville has had to wait most of the summer for the state to review plans to renovate and re-route the traffic headed into this city toward the Albertville Premium Outlets. 

The city, which has been hoping to get a new Interstate 94 interchange off the ground for much of the last five years, has been placed in a holding pattern until state workers are brought back online. 

City Engineer Adam Nafstad told Albertville City Council earlier this month that plans were ready for the Minnesota Department of Transportation's review. The problem is, with the shutdown, there was no one to review them. 

Nafstad is confident the completion by the end of 2012 will not be affected.The current schedule for the I-94 project was to go through the approval process (early this year) and then start the bidding process this summer, with some preliminary work done on the roads involved as early as this fall.

The interchange project has to go through two reviews through MNDOT, the first at the district level (St. Cloud) and the second at the central MNDOT (St. Paul) offices. The project is currently being reviewed at the district level and was ready to be moved to the state.