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As the Minnesota walleye and northern pike fishing opener kicks off the tourist season this weekend, bringing the first main influx of trucks and SUVs hauling trailers with boats to lakes area roads, drivers should be aware of Highway 371 four-lane expansion work between Nisswa and Jenkins.

Motorists undoubtedly have noticed all the white flags along the east side of the highway just north of Nisswa at Cullen Brook. These flags mark the spots where 30-foot PVC wick drains will be installed. A working platform has been constructed for wick drain placement and surcharge activities at Cullen Brook.

The environmentally friendly, geotechnical platform project includes 1 ½ to 3 ½ feet of wood chips that were placed in the wetland, then topped by fabric and sand. Next, the wick drains will be installed over the next month.

As the wood chips settle into the water table, the surcharge placement will be periodically repeated through May 2017, when the settlement will be complete, and the compressed peat will be stable for the roadway to be built on top of it. There are three stages of surcharge material being placed at frequencies to be determined by settlement data collected in the field.

Following are highway construction updates from Randy Shoen, design-build project manager with Mathiowetz Construction, general contractor for the highway project:

County State Aid Highway 11 detour

Starting the week of May 16, traffic on CSAH 11 between Breezy Point and Pequot Lakes is scheduled to be detoured along a paved frontage road and new Highway 371 lanes to Derksen Road. A temporary signal light has been installed at the existing Highway 371/Derksen Road intersection.

This detour will be in place through November to build the new CSAH 11 overpass bridge, which will include two oval roundabouts.

Wilderness Road

Crews paved the temporary, rerouted Paul Bunyan Trail and removed the existing trail to build a trail bridge in the area. Completion of this east leg of the intersection of Wilderness Road and the trail bridge is expected in late August. Crews are grading the new Paul Bunyan Trail alignment north of Wilderness Road.

Two temporary Paul Bunyan Trail bypasses have been built, one at the north leg of County Road 107 and one just to the south of Wilderness Road. Both of these areas will see the construction of new Paul Bunyan Trail bridges - one bridge over Highway 371 just to the north of CR 107, and one bridge spanning a wetland south of Wilderness Road.

Other work

Utility relocation work continues along the highway route. Construction of the south bypass in Nisswa, north of County Road 18, is complete. This crossover will be used for traffic switches while constructing the highway. It's anticipated that construction of Highway 371 northbound lanes from Nisswa Avenue to south of Cullen Brook will begin in July, when this bypass will start being used.