With winter having come to an end in Minnesota, that means the return of road construction. For Beltrami County, a major project coming up this summer is the reconstruction of Irvine Avenue and the addition of a roundabout in Bemidji.

The reconstruction will go from 30th Street to Anne Street, with the roundabout at the intersection of Irvine and Anne. The project is part of a five-year plan that included gathering community input on aspects like choosing a roundabout over stoplights.

“The public was open to the roundabout,” said Bruce Hasbergen, Beltrami County Public Works Director. “For us, it is easier to maintain [than] traffic signals, it’s also better than traffic flow, it’s more efficient at traffic flow, so design-wise, it was kind of a flip either way, and so the public input was important to help us move in one direction toward the roundabout.”

The project is expected to start sometime after Memorial Day and end in September. The entire corridor is expected to be closed at the same time with detours to the west using city roads as well as county ones.

By — Lakeland News