For community members who understand how road and drainage improvement projects work, the City of Morton has been eagerly waiting to share these project details since Fall of 2022. We anticipate if the project continues to stay on the timeline the project will begin sometime this fall of 2024 with road paving occurring in 2025. Not only will this project help with drainage problems in Morton it will also create a wider shoulder for people to walk or ride bikes on.
About the Project
The City of Morton, Renville County and Bolton and Menk have been working together to design the surface and drainage improvements on CSAH 18 from the intersection of 675th Avenue to the intersection of North Main Street.
This project will include piped storm sewer improvements within Morton City limits to direct flow from the CSAH 18 ditch to the north side of the culvert under 5th Street at the north side of the city park.
The current preliminary cost estimate for the storm sewer portion of the project was approximately $287,000 with $129,000 of that cost being the responsibility of the City of Morton for storm sewer back when the project was originally designed in 2022. These estimates were based on bids received and will likely differ with time and environmental conditions during new bids. In December of 2022 the City Council set aside the funds to cover the $129,000.
Timing of the Project and Future Detours
As a city set amongst an agricultural community, the City Council understands the importance of completing a project like this during lower traffic time periods and avoiding planting and harvest seasons. With this timing in mind, the project design will be completed soon with hopes to get the project out for bid in the next couple months. Ideally, the awarded bidder could start work as soon as possible in summer of 2024 and get as much work as possible completed by the harvest of 2024. The pavement is anticipated to be completed in 2025 with more details to be shared when they are available.
Questions About the Project
We understand a surface and drainage improvement project comes with both excitement and nervousness about detours. As more information is available, we will share it with the community. In the meantime, we encourage you to keep an eye out on our Facebook page and website for project updates when exact timing is known.