Arnolds Park City Council Approves Hwy 71 Preconstruction Agreement
Arnolds Park City Council Approves Hwy 71 Preconstruction Agreement
March 17, 2022Steve Schwaller
(Arnolds Park)– Meeting in special session Wednesday evening, the Arnolds Park City Council approved a pre-construction agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation for the Highway 71 project through the lakes corridor. Shane Tymkowicz, Associate District Engineer with the D.O.T’s District 3 Office, says it’s pretty similar to the one approved last week by the city of Okoboji…
“The basic premise of it all is much the same, I mean it’s that pavement replacement coming through the corridor, it’s replacing the sidewalk, replacing the trails so we have the ADA compliance there. The signal coordination was part of it from the beginning, but the staging has changed as we worked with the communities. As was discussed at the meeting last week, you know we definitely worked with the communities to work with staging that works with each community and the impact that has on them.”
Arnolds Park Mayor Jim Hussong expressed his appreciation to the D.O.T for working closely with the city and keeping it in the loop…
“They’ve been very good with their corresponding and keeping us up to date on everything. It’s been a fast couple of years since ’19 that we started talking about this in the first place. But yeah, the communication has been great and that’s what’s key and we’ll continue to do that with everybody that lives in the area and definitely keep the streets open for through traffic as much as we possibly can for the businesses and the residents alike.”
Other than a much smoother road, Hussong adds there’s one thing in particular they’re excited about with the project…
“And also we’ll have it cleaned up a little bit with the lights changing so it’s going to be a little bit more timed better, so we’re working together with Okoboji with that, too, just so that we’re going to be able to get through that area of the corridor here a little bit faster if you want to because the lights will be timed.”
Tymkowicz says the next thing now that both cities have signed off on the project is a pre-bid meeting that’s set for March 30th, with a bidletting April 17th. As we reported previously construction will start this fall with some intersection work. Construction in the causeway area will begin September 17th, with that area to be closed 28 days, with an incentive if the contractor can get it done in a shorter time. Work will continue in the spring and fall of 2023 with any carryover being completed in the spring of 2024.
