Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Delano City Council approves Railroad Avenue extension



DELANO, MN – There will be a new way to get to downtown Delano by sometime in 2018, as the Delano City Council approved an extension of Railroad Avenue from Fourth Street to Tiger Drive Tuesday evening.

Improvements will include the extension of sanitary sewer main, the replacement of water main, and realignment and widening of Railroad Avenue.

The first phase of the project, which will extend the sanitary sewer and improve the road to the east of 511 Railroad Avenue without adding curb and gutter, will take place before the end of 2017. A temporary connection of Railroad Avenue to Tiger Drive will be made for local resident access during construction, and will be barricaded off between phases one and two. The second phase will complete the remaining utility installation and replacement and pavement of Railroad Avenue, and will take place in the spring and summer of 2018.

The project will be a $1,317,187 change order to the 2016 infrastructure improvements project. It was a part of the initial feasibility study for those improvements, but was not included in the bid because the city needed to acquire right of way for the project.

Funding for the project will come from a bond that will also provide funding for a water main on the Delano Public Schools campus, which the district is being assessed for.

“This project is not being assessed against property owners, and would be a part of the overall debt service levy for 2018,” City Administrator Phil Kern said.

This Railroad Avenue extension is expected to reduce traffic on other streets in the area.

“This would be a minor collector street and provide another way to get downtown,” Assistant City Engineer Shawn Louwagie said. “This would pull some traffic off Elm and Rockford.”

It will also improve drainage for properties on Railroad Avenue. Drainage will be discharged to a pond that has enough volume to handle a 100-year flood event.

An 8-foot-wide sidewalk will also be added to Railroad Avenue from Fourth Street to Tiger Drive.

Odds and ends

In other business, the council:

• approved a bid of $99,186 from SJB Masonry, of Watertown, and a bid of $45,910 from Wright Lumber for construction materials for the new concession building at Central Park. The building will measure 94 feet long by 24 feet wide and will take the place of the hamburger stand and the Boy Scouts pop stand.

• approved spending $4,150 with Town and Country Fence, of Brooklyn Park, for an 8-foot overhang addition to the fencing at Field 9 to prevent balls from reaching the splash pad.

• approved a $601,641 reduction of the letter of credit the city holds for installation of public infrastructure for the Highland Ridge Fourth Addition project, leaving a balance of $132,336, which is 115 percent of the remaining public improvements.

• recognized Brian Anderson for 20 years of service on the fire department.

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