Road Construction Planned for Main Street in Owatonna

A pair of open houses are planned for a proposed road construction project on Main Street in Owatonna. Rehabilitation and improvements from Oak Avenue to Chambers Avenue are scheduled for 2023. The first open house is Thursday, February 17 from 4 to 6 pm at the Owatonna Fire Department at 107 West Main Street. The goal is gather public input on the project.

Steele County and the City of Owatonna are studying the matter, "A feasibility study looks at the existing conditions of a roadway and determines the best way to improve it. This study will include thorough review of the corridor's pavement conditions; identification of opportunities of walking, biking, and rolling; and a traffic analysis of the entire study corridor."

Thursday's open house invites public input on the project. The second open house will be scheduled for August 2022. See the full project outline.

Aspects to be considered include historic buildings in the construction zone and Federated Insurance along the route with the large number of employees that cross the street. Central Park and Jaycee Park also fall in the work zone.

ACCIDENTS UP AT OWATONNA ROUNDABOUT INTERSECTION

Owatonna police are asking the public to take extra caution at the roundabout at Rose and Grove in Owatonna. The Just the Facts newsletter states, "Since the intersection was changed at Rose Street and Grove Avenue, there has been an increase in traffic accidents and near miss accidents."

They remind drivers slow down entering a roundabout, yield to vehicles already in the roundabout and yield to walkers at crosswalks.

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