Photo by Deb Gau The newly realigned intersection of Lyon County Road 9 and Highway 23 in Cottonwood is just one part of the construction work completed around the area this summer. A relatively mild spring and summer gave road workers a good start to make progress on 18 miles of construction between Cottonwood and Granite Falls.

MARSHALL — The Minnesota Department of Transportation said highway construction season is over for the year, at least in the Marshall area.

On Friday, MnDOT said it had wrapped up projects in District 8, which includes 12 counties in southwest Minnesota, including Chippewa, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, McLeod, Meeker, Murray, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville and Yellow Medicine counties.

This year, area highway projects included some reconstruction on Minnesota Highway 23, as well as several resurfacing projects. Construction benefited from the relatively mild weather that lasted from spring through fall.

“You could say this year’s program came in like a lamb, and went out like a lion,” said Kelly Brunkhorst, District 8 assistant district construction engineer.

“Most years, construction crews aren’t on the job site until the first or second week of May, while this year most staff were on location in April, and some as early as March. However, October snowstorms and below freezing temperatures threw some challenges at us toward the end. All in all, it was another successful construction season for the district.”

Over the course of the construction season, MnDOT resurfaced 18 miles of concrete on Highway 23 between Cottonwood and Granite Falls, as well as building left turn lanes near Cottonwood and Hanley Falls, and realigning the intersection of County Road 9 in Cottonwood.

Other projects in the Lyon County area included resurfacing 17 miles of U.S. Highway 59 in Lyon and Yellow Medicine counties, the completion of resurfacing on Highway 91 from the Nobles/Murray County line north to Russell, and stabilizing road embankments and slopes at locations along Highway 59 and U.S. Highway 14.