Greetings from the district,
I continue to hear from constituents daily regarding the traffic delays and signage concerns related to the Highway 61/43/Mankato Avenue roundabout construction in Winona. I have communicated these concerns along with suggestions from constituents directly to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and they continue to work toward improving the delays, signage, and overall traffic flow. Below is an update that I received from MnDOT earlier today. Please feel free to continue contacting me with questions, concerns, or ideas and I’ll continue to pass them along to MnDOT.
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“We apologize for the lengthy delays that were occurring as we transitioned from the permanent traffic signals to temporary signals. We were not pleased with the situation either and had crews working on the timing and other improvements as traffic adapted to the new situation. Crews were working on the situation into last weekend to improve the timing.
Traffic flow has improved and seems to be continuing. There still are delays through the work zone, especially at the peak morning and afternoon travel times, but much less than the initial changeover. We anticipate traffic delays through the work zone during the next months, but MnDOT and its contractor will continue to monitor what’s occurring to determine if additional changes should occur.
So far crews have installed double yellow tape separating NB from SB 43. There were delineator tubes missing. We had the contractor replace them.
MnDOT has requested that the contractor paint arrows indicating the proper lane movements at the lights. This will be occurring soon when they bring in a subcontractor. The paint should withstand the traffic longer than adhesive markings. We are also adding more signs to help motorists recognize their turns and the proper lanes to reach their destinations.
We have had issues with traffic taking left turns from SB 43 into the Kwik Trip driveway between the car wash and gas station. We had the contractor place additional delineators to prevent those turns. We have also added delineators along the centerline at the Bruski/Parks intersection as traffic is not obeying the no left turn signs.
In addition, we have requested the contractor to place signs on the NB and SB 61 signals indicating that the left turn traffic must yield to oncoming traffic, and that has occurred. This is a change from the previous condition where the NB/SB 61 left turns had a green arrow.
Crews are also looking at the possibility of doing some temporary lane work on NB 43 near Kwik Trip to remove the bottleneck there to give motorists access to two lanes near the Kwik Trip, which could help motorists pick a through or turn lane sooner. We hope to have a determination of that feasibility soon and will then make the change.
We provide weekly updates to people who’ve signed up for our email/text messages. If you aren’t signed up, you can do so via this link (https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/MNDOT/subscriber/new?topic_id=MNDOT_770).
Our MnDOT project website also has information and the project updates (https://www.dot.state.mn.us/d6/projects/hwy43/updates.html) are posted on the website (https://www.dot.state.mn.us/d6/projects/hwy43/index.html) after we send out the email/text messages.
Additionally, we are doing a monthly update newspaper column at the start of each month in the Winona Post and Winona Daily News, and do regular update reports on KWNO-AM.”
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As I hear more from MnDOT I will be sure to communicate that information, but I encourage everyone to sign up for MnDOT’s weekly updates through the link they shared above. Thank you to all who have brought these issues to my attention.
Sincerely,
Jeremy R. Miller
Minnesota State Senator