Construction on the new $5 million Kwik Trip Inc. gas station on the north end of Bridge Avenue in Albert Lea will not take place this year, according to a company official.

Kwik Trip Real Estate Development Manager Wade Dumond said Tuesday the earliest the new gas station will be built is 2013 — as long as questions about access points are resolved. If not, the project may be pushed back further.

“The longer we wait, the harder it is to even get it in for 2013,” Dumond said.

The main question is whether Freeborn County commissioners — as the road authority on Bridge Avenue — want to allow Kwik Trip to construct and pay for a right-turn lane for vehicles, mainly semis, to use to turn into the property. The property has two access points from Sykes Street to the north and two access points from the frontage road to the east. The city, however, plans to vacate the frontage road and grant easements to the property owners to use that space. That would make those access points obsolete.

Freeborn County Engineer Sue Miller said she and SRF Consulting Group out of Minneapolis, which has been studying the traffic patterns on the street, are recommending against the turning lane. The recommendation is in line with a policy that recommends against new access points on Bridge Avenue.

Kwik Trip purchased the three-acre property at 2611 Bridge Ave. for $1.5 million in October and at announced plans to build a new store. The store would have unleaded and diesel gasoline pumps, along with a car wash, and would create between 20 and 30 new jobs.

Commissioners are expected to vote on the Kwik Trip turning lane Aug. 21.