What's So Cool About The Hwy 53 Relocation Project?

All images are from the Highway 53 Relocation Project Website on the MNDOT Website.  If you're interested, you can check it out right here

The following article is about a highway project I've been following for the last five years and am eager to see completed.  For those of you don't know, I am an avid fan of road designs.  Not sure why I was born with that trait and interest, but I digress.  Happy Reading! ~ DJ Rollie D

I haven't been on the Iron Range for about a month now. When I left, a project slowly working it's way towards completion was the relocation of Highway 53 in the Midway area between Eveleth and Virginia.  When the project is finished around this time next year, we'll have a beautiful new bridge that will serve as a "gateway" into the community of Virginia, and a brand new stretch of highway that we'll be able to get a nice smooth ride on.

But before that, we still have about a year's worth of construction ahead of us, some of which has caused quite a tizzy to myself and other Northlanders who travel(ed) the stretch often with a 40mph slowdown zone that lasts for about a mile or two in the Midway area that has traffic in both directions on the Northbound side of a road that goes both North and South on separate roads.  Except for the midnight hours, a time that I often found myself traveling home during over the Summer, there were always quite a few vehicles on the road.  Next Summer, it will be the Southbound road's turn to play host to both directions of traffic, and things only look to get messier from there.

Before we go any further, a little bit of backstory on this project for those who don't live on the Iron Range.  In the 1960's, an easement was created that would allow Highway 53 to run across a 1-mile strip of profitable mining land just outside of Virginia between 2nd Avenue West and Highway 135. Since then, mining has occurred or is still occurring on both sides of the project, but the highway has remained relatively untouched.  But in 2010, the easement was terminated and a project was started to move the highway by 2016.  And the craziness began.....

Several ideas were formed to move the road.  There was the idea to send it through the Auburn Pit Mine south of the road through a tunnel to prevent people catching hold of dangerous chemicals in the air from the open pit mine, and another plan to send the highway out to the Forbes area and then up into Virginia next to Menards, which would have seen Plaza 53 West almost or completely demolished as well as potentially the new Auto Zone that sits next door to it among other things.... Another idea was to have the highway turn west at the east exit of Hwy 37 in Eveleth, have the highway go through Eveleth. and then head north through Mountain Iron.  There were tons of ideas, but only one would win out at the end of 2014 after long discussion, and that is the one pictured below....

Going from south to north, the road will go through Midway like normal, but then will basically keep going north right across the current Highway 135 interchange and up through the area that Landfill Road currently inhabits.  About another mile later, the road will turn and run across the Rochleau Pit, which will then bring us across our new tall bridge and into Virginia, where the highway will swing back to the South and meet up with what we have today right at 2nd Avenue West, where (sigh) there's going to be a new stoplight intersection.... Don't get me wrong I love stoplights, but only sometimes....  However, if you hit one, you hit them all, and that always happens when I go through Eveleth-Virginia.  Some of the spots don't need stoplights anymore, but there they still sit. Regardless of that though, we are still thankful for public safety in this manner...

So now back to the main idea of this post, and that's what makes this project so cool.  This project has the ability to do several things for the Eveleth/Virginia/Mountain Iron/Gilbert Area, and they all play together in their own cool little ways...

• New Business Opportunities: Similar to the new County Road 102 that runs behind Walmart, the new highway will have several prime locations for new businesses to pop up along it's sides, and I think a really good spot would be the new intersection with Landfill Road... Every time a new place opens, new jobs are created, putting people back to work and getting teenagers a chance to get into the workforce.

• Create & Provide A Beautiful View: How picturesque is it going to look the first time we come into Virginia from the North in the night hours and see all the city lights of Virginia as we come down across the bridge?  The answer is amazing!  I've always been a fan of city lights at night, especially in Duluth coming from Superior, and I'm hoping this new bridge creates an opportunity similar to that for citizens of the Range.
• Tourist Destination: The bridge itself is going to be a tourist destination.  Virginia is setting records by becoming home to the tallest bridge in the US.  There are going to be people taking pictures and stopping to look at the beautiful views. There was even a design quality committee hired to ensure the bridge had a cool design and wasn't just your typical iron and steel structure. They're also working on the rest of the project, including the new Highway 135 interchange bridge design.  They're going from top to bottom here.
• More Mining: While I'm generally not a fan of how much attention mining gets on the Iron Range, it is quite a benefit that many miners could go back to work after the project is over and the old Hwy 53 Area is ready to be mined out.  There will be many happy families once that project kickstarts in 2017/18/19.
• The Public Was Able To Voice Their Concerns: How often do we complete a highway project and let the public's opinion be as directive as it was here?  Not very often!  Kudos to MNDOT for allowing the public to be so vocal in this project.

While I am not returning to the Iron Range as a resident in the near future, I am looking forward to driving over this bridge on visits home, and I will make it a point to cross it the first time I come home and it is open.  I guess you could say I just really love construction and usually tend to love new things compared to the old....  which is why I have always had such a steadfast interest in this project.

Thanks for hanging on through this construction geekout post :)