2025 road construction season underway for southeast Minnesota
ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – As we slowly wave goodbye to freezing temperatures and snowy weather, we welcome Minnesota’s 5th season—road construction. In a conference Wednesday morning, officials from the city of Rochester, Olmsted County, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) shared the road construction projects people can expect throughout this year.
The spokespersons shared there will be nearly 80 different projects throughout the year: more than 50 of which are from the city of Rochester. Along with those projects, 11 are from Olmsted County, and 17 from MnDOT.
“We also have work happening in parks and the-right-of-way, often doing stormwater maintenance work, wastewater, and utilities,” City of Rochester Communications & Engagement Coordinator Megan Moeller said. “It’s hard to give a single number, but we have a lot going on.”
For Rochester and Olmsted County, growth, along with safety, is one topic that is paired with the infrastructure upgrades.
“We keep getting expansion on the outside,” Olmsted County Transportation Construction Manager Scott Holmes said. “We need to keep constructing roads to keep traffic moving and flowing good.”
For 2025, many large projects are on the docket, which include the Link Bus Rapid Transit, the reconstruction of Olmsted County Road 5 south of Byron, and the bridge replacements on I-90 in Austin.
“The bridge or the roads are reaching their shelf life so to speak,” MnDOT Spokesperson Michael Dougherty said. “The interstate was built all at once. A lot of those were built of that one era of the late 1950s. So, it’s good and timely to replace them.”
With detours and closures, road construction entails inconvenience, but officials said with time, the fruits of labor outweigh the discomfort.
“We recognize construction is disruptive, but the end result is always much better,” Dougherty said. “It’s improved safety and it’s improved mobility for people.“
“[For] a lot of our bituminous preservation roads, we actually have flaggers out there,” Holmes added. “We do them under traffic so we don’t have to detour people. Be patient with them. They may stop you for a little bit. They’re not going to keep you there for a super long time.”
Dougherty suggested people take a minute and examine the 511 website to see if there are any disruptions on your route. He also recommended everyone study the incoming road construction projects ahead of time so there are no surprises. To view them, visit the city of Rochester, Olmsted County, and MnDOT’s websites.
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