City of Redwood Falls to install traffic control measures in Ramsey Park area during Highway 19 bridge repairs

The City of Redwood Falls, in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), will repair and resurface the Minnesota Highway 19 bridge over the Redwood River starting May 2 until about Sept. 2.

That will be inconvenient for many people — a 2019 traffic count noted that at the Highway 19 bridge, the number of cars traveling in that area averages 6,700 per day.

According to MnDOT, most work will be done on one side of the Highway 19 bridge at a time to allow for continued traffic. However, there will be times when the bridge will be completely closed. During those times a detour will take drivers north on Redwood CSAH 17 (Laser Avenue) to Redwood County 25, east along CSAH 25 until it connects with Redwood CSAH 101, then south back to Highway 19/71 (Bridge Street).

MnDOT Public Affairs Coordinator Sandra Schlagel stated MnDOT will provide as much notice as possible to the public about when the bridge is closed, using electronic message boards on Highway 19, as well as on the MnDOT Facebook and Twitter sites and the MnDOT web site at www.dot.state.mn.us.

The city encourages everyone to use the detour, but Redwood Falls Mayor Tom Quackenbush noted the road through Ramsey Park will be a natural detour for many locals.

Traffic on the swayback bridge in the park will be limited to one lane, with a stop sign installed at each end of the bridge. According to Quackenbush, “Our park is a resource used throughout the summer by local families, campers, walkers and nature enthusiasts as it should naturally be. The safety measures that will be put in place are in an effort to allow cars and pedestrians to coexist throughout the Highway 19 bridge construction time frame.”

For safety through the park and connecting streets, the city identified nine uncontrolled intersections in the area, and recommended the addition of stop signs at those intersections. In addition to stop signs, temporary speed bumps will be installed at the following locations: the 200 Block of East Oak Street, near the campground entrance, and near the Ramsey Creek bridge.

Additional parking lane markings are going to be added on North Lincoln and East Oak streets. “Local traffic only” signs will be added at the intersection of Highway 19 at Grove, Drury and Whittet streets.

City officials hope the traffic control measures will discourage the public using local streets as an alternate to the established detour. The Redwood Falls Police Department will provide additional patrols in the areas where the new traffic control measures will be added.

Redwood Falls City Administrator Keith Muetzel stated that once the project is complete the traffic control measures will be removed. However, the new stops signs will remain in place.