Minnesota's Carver County teamed up with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to put to rest a vision that has been years in the making when highway construction crews complete a $60 million highway upgrade on this 100-year-old highway.
When highway workers walk off and leave the project site behind them this fall, the last 5-mi. segment of 40 mi. of Minnesota's Hwy 212 between Minneapolis and the small rural town of Glencoe will finally be operating to expressway standards. And they leave behind them a much safer highway with double the capacity for the thousands of commuters and truckers driving it daily.
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MnDOT awarded the contract to Mathiowetz Construction based in Sleepy Eye, Minn. The company is a heavy-highway, commercial and agricultural construction company, now moving into its fourth generation of family ownership and just celebrated its 100-year anniversary last fall.
Mathiowetz crews rolled in dozens of pieces of Cat heavy equipment including dozers, scrapers, side dumps, graders and rollers to build the road. MCC Construction crews are on the project for the heavy earth moving operations including mucking, aggregates, pipe installs and paving.
Improving mobility and safety, boosting economic development and eliminating freight bottlenecks are the goals of this project.
According to the Carver County web site, "U.S. Highway 212 serves as the backbone for commerce between southwest Minnesota, South Dakota and the Twin Cities. It provides highway freight mobility and connectivity for 22,000 sq. mi. of southwestern Minnesota and South Dakota that is currently not served by the Interstate System or freeways. The highway also provides rural communities with better access to education, healthcare and employment opportunities, fostering economic growth and development."
Alison Berreth-Sandberg, MnDOT construction engineer, gives credit to Carver County officials for jump starting the rebuild of this last segment of road in 2009 and partnering with MnDOT to begin the design and right-of-way acquisition process.
"Rebuilding this last segment of Highway 212 became more of a vision in 2009 and this vision should really belong to Carver County. I think they did an outstanding job to inform MnDOT what their people needed on this," said Berreth-Sandberg.
The final pavement and geometric improvements are taking place between the small rural towns of Norwood-Young America and Cologne, 25 mi. west of the suburbs of Minneapolis.
In detail, the improvements include the conversion of a two lane, undivided highway to four lanes of divided highway and a grade separated interchange at County Road 51 that connects to the tiny prairie town of Bongard and home to the world-wide known Bongard Cheese Factory.
It will add five reduced conflict intersections (RCIs) at crossings that have been a major source of accidents in the past. The RCI design eliminates the left turn to cross over two lanes of a busy highway.
Instead, there is only a right turn option to access the highway. For motorists driving westbound, they will make the traditional right turn and continue on their way.
For motorists heading eastbound, they will make the right turn, merge onto a left turn ramp a couple of hundred feet further down the road and enter a dedicated U-Turn to cross the median and merge with the eastbound lanes of the highway.
Hwy 212 between Minneapolis and the South Dakota border was little more than a dirt road in the early 20th century, according to the Carver County web site.
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It wasn't until 1928, when motorized traffic quickly took over the road, that MnDOT began paving the entire length of highway. Finally, after 12 years of intensive labor, construction crews completed this project in 1940.
Other than routine maintenance, there has been no significant upgrades to Hwy 212 between Minneapolis and Glencoe until the state began to rebuild this stretch of highway to expressway standards as the western suburbs of Minneapolis quickly grew and expanded closer to the smaller agricultural communities just west of Minneapolis, according to the Carver County web site.
Mathiowetz crews have taken on a road rebuild that is notable for a late summer start last year that leaned into an ambitious construction schedule.
And admittedly, the tight deadlines were one of the biggest challenges for Mathiowetz crews when they mobilized.
"The bid was in mid-June last year, and the award came in late July then we started working days later," said Greg Huiras, Mathiowetz Construction project manager. "There were a lot of utilities that had to be moved, a lot of planning and collaboration to make sure everyone was on schedule. Just getting the job up and running and completing some of the milestones we had to have done was challenging.
"The utilities had their plans in place so it's just a matter of time and getting them done while
we worked in other areas of the job. We had to shuffle some of our crews around just to get ahead when we could."
Berreth-Sandberg pointed out that muck excavation has been another challenge for Mathiowetz crews.
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"Carver County is particularly known for its clay and muck which makes it very challenging to build on," she said. "Your excavations can be quite large and expensive because of excessive groundwater. You really have to reduce that groundwater to get the excavation you want and build it back-up to make sure it's not settling over time so that's a big construction challenge."
Estimated quantities reinforce this point. By the time construction is completed, crews will have excavated an estimated 400,000 cu. yds. of muck; 1 million cu. yds. of common excavation; surcharged 675,000 cu. yds. of soil; placed 450,000 linear ft. of wick drains; graded 110,000 cu. yds. of Class 6 aggregate; and paved 150,000 tons of asphalt.
When construction began in March this year, crews fought off a rainy spring that has unfortunately continued to roll into the summer season but have managed to keep on schedule.
"The construction has been going well for all the challenges the contractor has encountered," Berreth-Sandberg said. "With the utilities and obviously the weather this spring, it has not been kind to us with all the rain. Mathiowetz has always been a great contractor and partner that keeps moving and pushing to meet deadlines. The bridge over 212 at County Road 51 at the small village of Bongard was well ahead of schedule because crews were able to take advantage of the drier weather."
Crews faced a tangle of utilities when they began working to build a new road running past the Bongard Cheese Factory and into the village of Bongard. The factory has been there since the early 1900's according to the Minnesota Historical Society and has continually expanded through the years.
Before the calendar year turned to 2025, construction crews had to have all utilities running into the factory in place and build a new asphalt road to run off from the highway, past the factory and into town.
"With a factory that old, there were a few unknown utilities that popped up and had to be identified before they were removed or replaced," said Huiras. "Planning and collaboration among all agencies affected by the road played a key part in getting the utilities moved and replaced for the cheese factory alone. There was a lot of old stuff we didn't know was there. We had to work with Bongard's, Carver County and MnDOT to identify all of the utilities, where to put them and get them scheduled to be replaced or relocated.
"Some of them were private utilities. The factory had electrical and telephone lines that ran from the factory on one side of the road to the other side. There were a few utilities we had to work around to make sure we didn't shut anything down."
Along with the utility adjustments, crews devoted their time last season to setting the job up including road crossovers, bypasses and tackling muck removals at six different sites.
One of the deeper sites excavators dug out is located near the factory on the eastbound side of the highway. Excavators equipped with GPS units reached down 25 ft. deep at times to scoop up muck.
To stabilize the future road base, crews surcharged the soil with 3-ft. lifts of fabric and sand and drilled in wicks to a depth of 35 to 40 ft. deep, Huiras explained.
"It's a months-long process. We just placed the last lift here and it will sit another waiting period before it can be removed. Last year we were in six different spots," Huiras said.
Generally, crews have been working 55 hours a week but had to throw in some Saturdays from days missed due to rain. With a mild Minnesota winter behind them, Mathiowetz crews had an early start on construction this year.
The project is still on schedule for an Oct. 31, 2026, completion date despite the spring and summer rains. CEG
