News

ST. PETER (TEC News) -- A spokesperson for the Hghway 169 project in St. Peter says a design mistake has led to the additional work that is shutting down the inside lanes of the heavily traveled four-lane highway.

"It slipped through the cracks...no pun intended." said Charleen Zimmer, the Public Information Coordinator for the Highway 169 project.

What she is talking about is the metal grates for the storm sewers running on both sides of the median. Zimmer says the sewer grates installed last summer were designed for a "vertical, sharp curb." Problem is the median curbs are rounded and that left a piece of metal sticking up.

Installing the square grate in a round curb became a problem this past winter when MnDOT snowplow blades started catching the metal sticking up from the curb.

So MnDOT decided to replace them, on each side of the median for eight blocks of the project from Elm to College and Mulberry to Chatham.

Zimmer says there are two crews doing the work. The first is a metal crew that is cutting the exposed lip off the grate. Behind them is the cement crew that repairs the concrete curb and median. 

"Don't know how it happened" said Zimmer.

Zimmer says this is the last item that should require lane closures on Highway 169 running through St. Peter.

Traffic crawled through St. Peter Tuesday afternoon as the orange cones made their return to both the north and south bound lanes of Highway 169 to facilitate repairs on median storm sewer grates. (TEC News Photo)