From July through September, motorists traveling between Brainerd and Ironton were detoured around an 11-mile stretch of Highway 210. As of yesterday, the detour has been removed and the majority of the project has been officially completed.

It was a long summer for some residents in the Crosby-Ironton area as the major highway connecting the two towns to Brainerd, Highway 210, was closed to traffic.

“Anytime you have a major construction project that happens in an area you tend to see some things, some changes. People ask a lot of questions,” said Andrew Rooney, Crosby Police Chief.

That all changed this week as the majority of the project was completed and the detour was lifted.

“Thank goodness it’s open. Being people from Brainerd or having meetings in Brainerd and having to go over there. It really cuts that time down,” added Chief Rooney.

The project started in July along 11 miles of the highway and detoured motorists onto Highway 18 and then to Highway 6.

“The pavement was starting to deteriorate and we’re seeing higher and higher traffic volumes along this road, so we wanted to get out here and fix it now before it fell apart even further and we had more traffic to deal with,” explained MnDOT project manager Matt Indihar.

The project reconstructed the road surface, repaired or replaced underground drainage structures, and added additional turn lanes and bypass lanes.

“Basically the work that we did was to replace three larger culverts under the road here. We also did some widening, added three new left turn lane locations and a few bypass lanes,” said Indihar.

Though the detour was sometimes inconvenient, locals and visitors alike knew it was needed.

“Now that you see that it’s done, it’s a great improvement not only for the area but for people traveling between Crosby and Brainerd,” “I do believe that it’s going to be positive, not only for our area, but all the towns around here and be very beneficial and advantageous for the motorists that commute back and forth daily.”

According to MnDOT, motorists could continue to encounter periodic lane or shoulder closures through mid-October as crews complete the final details of the project.

By — Rachel Johnson

Lakeland News Lead Reporter