On Tuesday, the Polk County Commissioners awarded the bid to reconstruct Fisher Avenue/County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 11. The reconstruction will take place from the railroad tracks (by the high school) to the east past Drafts Sports Bar and Grill. CSAH 11 will also get a bituminous overlay from the end of the reconstruction to CSAH 46. The project is set to be completed this summer.
Sanders said the reconstructed section would look like the stretch of Fisher Avenue west of the railroad tracks. “We’re taking the stretch east of the railroad tracks out past Drafts, which is a rural section right now,” said Sanders. “It’s two lanes with shoulders and converting it into an urban section with curb and gutter. Similar to the west of the tracks to Highway 2, you’ll have one lane of traffic each direction with a center turn lane the whole way and right turn lanes into the city streets on the south side of Fisher Avenue.”
The City of Crookston worked with developer Bob Herkenhoff to complete Eickhof Boulevard out to Fisher Avenue in 2020, which Sanders said was incorporated into the plans. “We worked with Mr. Herkenhoff and the city to make sure the road came out where we wanted it to in comparison to the arena and the frontage road on the northside of Fisher Avenue,” said Sanders. “So, when we’re reconstructing Fisher Avenue, we will tie Eickhof Blvd into our construction.”
Sanders said Fisher Avenue would be closed along the reconstructed stretch most of the summer, but there will be detours to get people to the businesses on that stretch of road. “Hopefully, the summer goes well, and construction goes well for those that use Fisher Avenue,” said Sanders. “We’ll have it detoured for the entire time. The folks that live in Crookston will have to find their way out of your subdivision up by Evergreen. You won’t be able to use Fisher Avenue. The people who use Fisher Avenue to get to the lakes will have a detour that goes north of the university on Highway 75, across on CSAH 57, and back (south) on CSAH 54. We’ll be detouring that way but leaving open enough that people can use Fisher Avenue by the tracks at some point to get to Casey’s and the frontage road, Barrette or CSAH 71 to get to Drafts.”
Additionally, the bid included a small project south of Crookston, with the winning bid at $3,412,783.95. The second bid came in just $1,173.65 higher, so the county was happy with the bidding process, explained. “We opened bids on Friday,” said Polk County Engineer Rich Sanders. “Electronic bids, so we didn’t have any paper coming in. Davidson Construction out of Newfolden was the lowest responsible bidder at $3.4 million and change. $2.8 million of that is Fisher Avenue. The remainder was an overlay east of town out to 46 and a little chunk of a road in Andover Township to the CHS elevator. The second bidder was Knife River, $1,200 higher, so we got good bids. The county is looking forward to having Fisher Avenue reconstructed. June 1st is our contract starting date and be completed by September 1.”
