MANKATO -- The Minnesota Department of Transportation selected the preferred alignments for finishing the four-lane expansion on Minnesota 60 from Windom to St. James, according to Peter Harff, project manager.
Minnesota 60 has three gaps that will expand from two lanes to four lanes over the next several years. The selected alignments are:
* Butterfield to St. James new eastbound lanes to the south of existing lanes
* Mountain Lake to Butterfield new eastbound lanes to the south of existing lanes
* Windom to Mountain Lake new westbound lanes to the north of existing lanes, including in Bingham Lake.
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MnDOT selects alignments that have the fewest business and farmland impacts and are the most cost effective.
Crews will construct the new segment from Butterfield to St. James in 2013-14 and the segment from Mountain Lake to Butterfield in 2015-16.
The final segment from Windom to Mountain Lake is planned for 2017. While the roundabout at Minnesota 71 in Windom was not part of the environmental review, MnDOT is considering constructing it in 2017.
MnDOT prepared a Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement because the original EIS was completed in 1983. Public hearings were conducted about the SFEIS and MnDOT will release the final document soon. More information and mapping is available at www.dot.state.mn.us/d7/projects/hwy60stjames/index.html .
