Dunn County Highway officials anticipate reopening a section of Highway B soon

MENOMONIE — With construction on the Dunn County highway project moving forward, county highway officials hope to reopen a portion of County Highway B soon.

Dustin Binder, county highway commissioner, said the goal for time is to have it reopened in the next two to three weeks.

“Our goal was to open this roadway prior to this road work being completed,” he said. “Unfortunately due to some safety issues, we have to wait a little bit longer to get this portion of County Road B paved prior to reopening it up again to help eliminate some of the congestion and confusion.”

Binder clarified and said the initial project schedule was to open up that portion starting June 1. It was opened on June 3, but he said they decided to close County Highway B for a short period of time due to traffic issues.

Binder also said the time is giving them an opportunity to “come up with a better solution for traffic control staging.”

The Dunn County highway project contains two parts that began Apr. 1 of this year after a few years of planning. The first part is local, stretching roughly a half-mile, and the second part is federal, which is approximately a mile long.

Binder said the presence of two different funding sources separates this project into two as well, but the construction takes place on one stretch of road encompassing state Highways 12/29 to Interstate-94 to Packer Drive.

With work progressing on the project, concrete pavement is expected to be laid shortly on the lanes heading northbound on a portion of the roads south of I-94. Their tentative completion date is July.

For the project as a whole, a press release from Dunn County on Monday said they anticipate construction to continue through the summer, with completion slated for fall.