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During the Austin City Council meeting Monday night, City Engineer Steven Lang gave an update on the Interstate 90 bridge project and the next bridge slated to go under the jackhammer.

Lang told the council that the on-off ramps of the Oakland Avenue bridge reconstruction are expected to open again during the week of Oct. 14. That bridge was the first of the six bridges scheduled and according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation is expected to be finished this month still.

At the same time, MnDOT crews will look to begin demolition of the Fourth Street bridge in the coming days, with Lang reporting that the street will close the morning of Oct. 18 for prep with both the bridge and the interstate closing down to traffic soon after.

Interstate traffic will be diverted up the on-off ramps during the year-long construction project.

Motorists will begin to start seeing detour signs later this week that will shift traffic to 14th Street NW when construction starts..

In August, the City Council agreed to a plan to place four-way stops at Fourth Avenue and 14th Street NW with temporary signals going in at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street NW.

The signal lights will allow for gaps in the traffic flow, which is expected to increase dramatically during the detour as well as ease the flow through the intersection.

Traffic volumes are expected to more than double during the duration of the detour from around 13,000 vehicles per day to 28,100 vpd.

Monday night, Lang said those lights have already been put in place and are ready for when the time comes.

Once completed, the bridge project on Fourth Street will have replaced the current interchange, create safer walkway crossings of the interstate and improve traffic flow.

Uncontrolled intersections

During the council’s work session, which followed the regular meeting, council members agreed to move forward a plan that would look to address a number of uncontrolled intersections in town.

With 917 total intersections in the city, Lang advised council to look first at 79 uncontrolled four-way intersections and one uncontrolled T-intersection, which would be converted to two-way stops.

The estimated cost for 160 stop signs comes to $14,000, with work funded through a budgeted street name signage replacement project, which was the primary reason to approach the project now so both could be done at the same time.

The project is estimated to take four years, with the possibility of extending it a year if the need arises.