Stearns County Preparing for Robust Construction Season in 2025

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- Stearns County is ramping up for one of its busiest road construction seasons in 2025.

County Engineer Jodi Teich says one of the larger projects is County Road 2 south of Cold Spring to near the county line...

A portion of that will just be full-depth resurfacing but once you get down to that (right around) to that 210th Street area then we'll be doing a full reconstruct and widening County Road 2.  It will have eight-foot paved shoulders and we'll be softening some of those curves northeast of St. Nicholas. But, that will be a full summer project.

Teich says that the project also requires the county to move a large Xcel Energy transmission line at $2,900,000.

County Road 157 between Albany and Freeport will be a large reconstruction project. She says County Road 157 along the Lake Wobegon Trail is an old trunk highway...

Which means it has an old 18-foot wide concrete pavement beneath that asphalt pavement. That concrete moves because of the poor subsoils there. So, we're going to be removing that concrete underneath the asphalt, we're going to be doing some soil corrections, some box culvert replacements, and widening the shoulders to six-feet-wide paved shoulders.

Teich says they also will remove an old railroad bridge just west of Albany.

Some other projects in 2025 are County Road 133 in St. Joseph, a small portion of County Road 2 north of St. Stephen, and a roundabout west of St. Joseph at County Road 2 and Minnesota Street.

Drivers in St. Cloud and Waite Park will have to deal with a significant road construction project next summer. Teich says they have a resurfacing project on County Road 81, more commonly known as 3rd Street North...

For a resurfacing project, it will involve some road closures and some detours on that as well just because it is a tight corridor and with the amount of traffic it has. We need to give our contractors room to work to make those storm sewer repairs.

Teich says Townline Road between Sartell and St. Stephen is still awaiting federal funds and will be reconstructed in 2026.

In all, Stearns County has 10 road reconstruction or road resurfacing projects scheduled for next year.