Highway Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad showing the county’s two road sign options as old signs are replaced by highly reflective signs now required by the federal government. On May 24, 2011, the county board went with Klegstad and Highway Engineer David Betts’ choice of the five-sided blue sign.
Property owners along County Road 45 – the Pike Lake Road – are wondering why the road is so bad and why the Cook County Highway Department isn’t fixing it. At the Tuesday, May 24, 2011 county board meeting, Highway Maintenance Director Russell Klegstad said he has been getting calls from people who leave angry voice mail messages about the road and then hang up. Klegstad wishes they would leave their phone numbers so he could call them back and explain the situation.
With frost still coming up out of the ground, the road is not stable enough for a grader to come and smooth things out right now, Klegstad said. In fact, they tried sending the grader out, and it fell through a portion of the road.
Klegstad wanted people to know his crew is fixing the spots they can get to. He also said roads need to be a little wet in order to be graded. Grading dry roads results in even more washboards.
Viking blue signs
Klegstad and Highway Engineer David Betts brought to the meeting two signs designating county roads – one, a square white sign with black letters, and the other, a pentagonshaped blue sign with gold trim and gold and white letters. They needed to find out which ones the county board wanted them to order as the county moves toward replacing old signs with new, highly reflective signs now required by the federal government.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson said that the white and blue on the pentagon-shaped sign reminded him of the Cook County Viking colors.
The board voted to use the blue signs.
MnDOT update
Todd Campbell of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) attended the meeting to update the board on upcoming MnDOT projects.
The most crash-prone areas along Highway 61 have been redone for safety in the last 20 years, Campbell said. The next safety improvement project will probably be in 2013 between mile markers 62½ and 67½ in Little Marais.
Next year, construction of 1.3 miles of pedestrian/bike trail is slated for Grand Portage, and in 2014, the Gitchi-Gami pedestrian/bike trail will be extended eight miles from Cascade to Grand Marais.
This summer, lots of I-35 work will be done on the stretch of road between Duluth and the Twin Cities, Campbell said. There will be “many, many chances” for travelers to get stuck in traffic between the two cities, he said. He recommended not trying to go north on 35 on Fridays or south on Sundays.
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