MARSHALL — Drivers traveling through Marshall next summer will need to be ready for a detour.

Concrete repairs planned on U.S. Highway 59 on the south edge of town will divert traffic onto South Saratoga Street and Lyon County Road 6.

Marshall City Council members approved an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Transportation for the detour on Tuesday.

“This was proposed a couple years back for a diamond grinding project that MnDOT is planning for U.S. 59,” said Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson. “The work did not get done a couple years ago, and now MnDOT is bringing it back in a new budget year, and they want to do the work next year.”

MnDOT is planning a two-part concrete repair project on Highway 59, tentatively scheduled to start in July 2024. The road work will first affect the stretch of Highway 59 running south from Minnesota Highway 23 to Lyon County Road 6, and then move on to a different part of the highway running from Garvin south to 211th Street in Murray County.

Detours will be required for both parts of the project, according to MnDOT. Anderson said the detour in Marshall was expected to last as long as 30 days.

Anderson said that this time around, he had not talked to MnDOT about how the construction would affect access to businesses in Marshall, like Runnings or Walmart.

“But my recollection from the last conversation was that work would be done under traffic in that retail corridor,” he said. “It’s just for the highway through traffic as it comes into town .-. that they need to detour it around.”

The construction south of Garvin will have a detour as well. According to MnDOT, the detour for that part of the project will use U.S. Highway 14, County Road 5, County Road 29, and County Road 48.

The construction is planned to begin in July 2024, starting with the Marshall segment of the project. The Marshall area of construction is planned to take about five weeks to complete, and the segment south of Garvin is expected to take about seven weeks to complete. However, the work in both segments could overlap, MnDOT said.