Look for 4 new county roundabouts this year

BRAINERD — Five roundabouts, four bridge replacements and 150 miles of road surface improvement projects are part of the Crow Wing County Highway Improvement Plan for the next five years.

Of the five roundabouts, four are going in this year. The roundabouts are going in at the front gate of Grand View Lodge on County Highway 77. The county is partnering with the city of Nisswa for that project, including about $900,000 of state money to help with costs. The state money also helped advance the project in terms of timing. The finished project may be closer to $1.5 million.

Another roundabout will go at Crow Wing County Highway 48 in a partnership with Baxter as the city extends Cypress Drive to connect with Highway 48 via the roundabout.

A roundabout also is going in at the intersection of Highway 210 and County Highway 31 in Crosby.

“When Super One decided to build their new building there we knew that the traffic patterns were going to change,” said Tim Bray, Crow Wing County highway engineer, in an April discussion on the five year plan before the county board.

The other roundabout this year will be the one at county highways 3 and 11 in Crosslake.

“This intersection has a tradition of serious and fatal crashes and we're happy to be able to get this in there,” Bray said. “So all of these are probably starting at about the same time. All of the projects that are scheduled for this year are going to involve a detour. And so there's been a lot of traffic snarls and we ask for the public's patience on that.”

The fifth roundabout scheduled for 2024 is at the intersection of county highways 3 and 4 at what has been traditionally called the Y store north of Merrifield.

“So we have a very busy season with that,” Bray said of the roundabouts. “And then four bridge replacements over the next five years.”

Bray said studies are looking at a couple of bridges in Crosslake and Brainerd. Preliminary results looking at whether to build a new bridge or redeck an existing bridge in Crosslake came back in favor of redecking. Bray said they are also looking at the Mill Avenue bridge in Brainerd. The bridge is 75 years old. Bray said the bridge is narrow and is showing signs of its age and it doesn’t accommodate some of the pedestrian opportunities.

Bray said the results of the study on the Mill Avenue bridge were not available yet. He said the county probably has another 10-15 years, if the bridge is left as is, before it needs to be replaced. As the expenditure will be large, he said it is prudent to start putting money toward the project now to benefit the taxpayers and whoever is working for the county a decade or more in the future.

“So it's really for my successor that will have to deal with that,” Bray said.

For the Ojibwa Road project, starting Wednesday, May 3, Bray noted they worked with John Bowen, emergency management director, to set up an alert system so residents will be able to get up-to-date information. Letters were sent out to residents about the option as well so they can sign up for text alerts, which is something the county will be able to use for future projects as well.

The county has asked Google Earth not to show the road so travelers won’t see the road, which was something that was used for the Beaver Dam project.

Crow Wing County 2023-2027 Highway Improvement Plan summary involves $87.2 million of total investment, including:

• $8.1 million federal transportation bill
• $27.7 million county state aid 
• $1.2 million Crow Wing County road and bridge levy
• $3.7 million First Assessment District road and bridge levy
• $43.3 million local sales tax
• $800,000 state bridge funding
• $2.4 million local cost sharing/partnerships with townships and cities

Renee Richardson, managing editor, may be reached at 218-855-5852 or renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter @DispatchBizBuzz.